THE MONSTROUS WAY OF LIFE
by LenSilvan
Summary: BtVS YAHF. On Halloween 1997, Xander Harris dressed as a Confederate soldier. Part of the outfit happened to belong Confederate Major Jasper Hale (Twilight series). When Ethan's spell hit him Xander was turned into a Twilight vampire. This story happens mostly in X-Men (comics) universe. Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight series, Marvel comics (X-Men).
1. Chapter 1

**THE MONSTROUS WAY OF LIFE**

**by**

**LenSilvan**

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**EDIT 7/11/2019: **Added 800 words at the end of this chapter to finish the battle.

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**Summary:** BtVS YAHF. On Halloween 1997, Xander Harris dressed as a Confederate soldier. Part of the outfit happened to belong Confederate Major Jasper Hale (Twilight series). When Ethan's spell hit him Xander was turned into a Twilight vampire.

**Fandoms: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight series, Marvel comics (X-Men)

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"By his monstrous way of life he seemed to have put himself beyond the limits of reality. Nothing moved him or spoke to him from the real world unless he heard it in an echo of the infuriated cries within him."

**James Joyce ― A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man**

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**DISCLAIMER: **Series trademarks, all publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is not in any way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, and makes no money from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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** Prologue**

The early Californian morning was cloudy as was Xander's mind, all through the night he had tried to cope with the century and half of the memories Jasper Hale had left behind. Strangely, Jasper's memories of his vampire life weren't the hardest for Xander to cope with, the memories of the vampire were pretty much what Xander had expected from a vampire with a soul. The memories that made Xander want to scream in terror were memories before Jasper had been turned.

Jasper had been only seventeen when he had joined the Confederate Army, and his memories of the Civil War terrified Xander. He now knew from the firsthand how gruesome war it had been. The suffering Jasper had gone through during the Civil War, and the terrible things he'd seen were much worse than anything Xander could imagine.

Xander now remembered the terrors of the Civil War, and he didn't want to have those memories. He was glad that he didn't need to sleep anymore, he didn't want to know what kind of nightmares Jasper's memories would give to him. He desperately wanted to get rid of Jasper's memories.

The back door of the Sunnydale High was open which Xander took as a good sign, it probably meant that Giles was in the Library. He glanced at the clock as he walked through the, all too familiar, hallways; it was six o'clock. When he got to the Library, it was empty, and he sighed in frustration and sat down. For a few moments, he just sat there, then he got bored and picked up the old, musty, book that was on the table. It was a fascinating book and helped pass the time.

After he had finished reading it, he put the book back on the table and went to get another book. He was reading the sixth book when the light laughter attracted his attention and Xander frowned when he saw that no one had come to the Library. When he recognized the voice of the girl, who was laughing, Xander hoped that she would not come to the Library. Not that he expected Harmony to enter the School on weekends.

Unless there'd be detention, of course, but he doubted that it was the case, Harmony was talking with Aura and, as far as Xander knew, Aura never had been given detention. Xander was somewhat relieved when the voices of Harmony and Aura faded away.

When he turned his eyes back to the book he was reading, he suddenly realized that it was written Classical Latin, and he read it as easily as he read comic books. Xander closed his eyes and brought to his mind what languages Jasper had learned in his long life. He then put the book down and went to the Demon section of the Library and picked a book written in French.

After he had turned a few pages, he put it back and picked up a book written in older Greek than Jasper had learned, but Xander still understood the most of it. He walked back to the table, speaking a few sentences in languages Jasper had learned. As he sat down, Xander was baffled; he now spoke seven languages. Eight if he counted English. Xander smirked, remembering how many times Giles had said that the language he and Buffy spoke was not English.

Suddenly Xander heard Buffy complaining to Giles about someone named Ethan. As he stood up to be ready to beg Giles to figure out a way for him to get rid of Jasper's memories, he happened to glance at the table. There were eight books on it, and he had read them all.

"How long have I been here?" Xander muttered turning to look at the clock and when he saw that it was 08:51 am his eyes widened. "Huh? I read eight books in less than three hours?"

When the twin doors opened, Xander lost all his coherent thoughts as the delicious smell of blood entered his nose. As he, guided by bloodlust, leaped on Giles, he noticed that the Librarian's knuckles were scabbed and bleeding. A terror flushed over his mind as he sunk his teeth into Giles' throat and ripped it open. Then, as fast as he had jumped on him, he got away from Giles.

He closed his eyes, trying to use Jasper's memories to get his bloodlust in control. He opened his eyes when he felt a pressure in his chest and saw Buffy's baffled eyes looking down at his chest. Xander glanced down and saw what baffled her; she had a splinter in her hand, and there were pieces of the stake on the floor; she had tried to stake him.

He then looked at Giles, lying in a huge puddle of blood. He had to use all his willpower not to go and lick that blood. That was the moment he realized that he had been turned into Jasper's kind of a vampire.

"Head," Xander said, looking into Buffy's eyes. "Cut off my head."

Buffy didn't hesitate, she went to the cage, opened it and took out a sword, and when she raised the sword, Xander leaned forward, exposing his neck. He heard a swoosh and then barely felt the hit on his neck. The blade only scratched his neck.

"What are you!?" Buffy asked, looking at the small scratch Xander's neck. "I hit as hard as I could, I used all my Slayer strength, and it only made a scratch!"

"I think that I'm sort of a vampire—" Xander paused, looking at Giles' body. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to die, Jasper was practically impossible to kill... I must go. I have to… find a place where there are no people," he said and ran out of the Library, out of the High School, out of Sunnydale.

Moments later, when the dense forest surrounding Sunnydale closed in around Xander, he zigzagged through the tangle of trees. As he moved down a path that grew ever steeper, the underbrush thickened, the trees were arching over him until they blotted out the pure blue of the sky.

He stopped running, the air was filled with the sounds of nature—birds, rodents, and large animals, all mingled with the hum and buzz of insects and the wind going through the leaves of the trees. Driven by his primal needs, Xander sniffed the air, trying to find a scent trail of something he could eat.

Soon he found the bear and leaped on it, sunk his teeth into its throat and ripped it open and drank. After he had killed the bear, he just stood there staring blankly at the horizon going through Jasper's memories, trying to figure out a way to kill himself.

But, as far as Jasper knew, only another vampire of his breed could kill him, and, as far as Xander knew, there weren't any others in this world. He had not ever heard about 'the cold ones.' For a long time, he stood there, feeling sorry for himself, silently crying. Then, at last, he sighed deeply and began to walk North.

And so the days passed on; Xander walked, hunted animals when hunger became too much to resist, and when he smelled cars, exhaust fumes, burning oil and wood, all kinds of smells of humanity in its worse, he turned away from them until one day he realized that he had not seen, heard or smelled any people in months.

He was still filled with grief and sorrow, but slowly, he had gotten used to living in the wilderness without any company, hunting wild animals. In there he was not a threat to anyone, and by the time the spring came he had started to like his life, there weren't any duties, no school, no need to worry what to do with his life, there was nothing but him and the wildlife.

Early June when Xander saw three helicopters, he wasn't worried, on his travels, he often saw airplanes and choppers. However, the third time they passed him by he began to wonder why they were circling around. The next time the helicopter came, Xander tuned his vampire ears on it and heard the description of the man they were hunting. The description matched himself to a tee.

Xander sighed, even though he had done his best to avoid humans, somehow he'd been noticed.

Xander ran away from them, getting higher and higher in the mountains. The coldness didn't bother him, nothing much did. Three days he hid there, but his hunger was fast becoming an issue. On the fourth night, he went hunting. He caught a wolf pack, ate three of them, trying to make sure that he had not killed the alpha, they had cubs, and Xander didn't want to wipe the whole pack out.

When he was about to leave, the army helicopters came again, and he got hit by a rain of bullets. The rapid gunfire didn't hurt him. Then, all of sudden an anti-tank missile hit him in the back. Before he got up, another missile hit him, and it was followed by a third shell, by which time he was so dazed that they managed to put shackles on him and before he knew what was happening he was lifted in the air by the helicopter.

Xander tried to break free, but the chains were too strong. He could climb up to the helicopter, but there'd be humans in there, and he was hungry. He didn't want to kill anyone.

All he could do was to hang there and wait for them to put him down.

They took him into some sort of military base and dropped him into a round room. Xander tried his best to break free from the shackles without success. "It is no use to try to break free, those shackles are made of vibranium," A voice said, "watch the TV."

Xander turned to look at the TV-screen on the wall. It flickered, and then he was watching a video feed of Willow and Buffy walking into Sunnydale High. "What the fuck?" He said.

"Mr. Harris, we know who you are, and we are aware some of your abilities," the voice said as the video was cut to Joyce working at her Art Gallery.

In a few minutes, he saw surveillance video about all his friends, Cordelia and Angel included and then to his parents.

"What do you want from me?" Xander asked.

"From the tests that we did with Rupert Giles' blood, we learned that none of the sedatives or poisons known to man will work on you. Usually, I don't care what our guests think, but since we know next to nothing about your species. If my information is right, you are a fountain of knowledge of your kind, so, in your case, it would be easier for everyone if you'll cooperate. So, I am giving you an incentive to let us study you."

"Huh? Giles?" Xander paused, realizing that he had bitten Giles and if he'd survived he would have been turned. He felt guilty about leaving him behind to deal with his new abilities without anyone telling him what he now was or help him control his bloodlust. "He survived the blood loss and the transformation?"

"Yes to both accounts," The voice said. "Is that rare?"

"Yeah, very rare," Xander said.

"Well, that is news to me, that kind of information is just what I need to hear," The voice said. "As I said, I'm giving you an incentive to cooperate if you obey us, your friends will be safe."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Perhaps you shouldn't, but I'm not interested in your friends. I'm interested only in you and your abilities. Since Rupert Giles has disappeared, you're our key to the immortality," The man said. "Truth to be told, I could make this a very hard for you, but I'd prefer if you'd cooperate with us. It always is easier when the subject is working with and not against us. I don't enjoy unnecessary violence. However, I am not going to lose any sleep if I have to order my men to kill your friends."

The screen was showing Buffy and a barrel of a sniper rifle that was aimed at her.

Xander nodded. "Got it, behave or you kill my friends. Why me?"

"The blood sample of Mr. Giles didn't work, and he has disappeared. Apparently, your body is the key to immortality without losing the soul."

Xander groaned, he didn't want to become a lab rat, but it seemed that he didn't have much choice if he wanted to keep his friends alive. "Okay, it's not like I have any choice. But I have one condition." He said, deciding not to tell them that it was the venom that turned people, not his blood.

"And what might that be?"

"I will let you do to me whatever you want, and I will be a good boy as long as I get weekly reports how my friends are doing and video of them so that I know that they're still alive."

The door opened, and a middle-aged man walked in. "Acceptable," He had a wicked smile plastered on his face. "Welcome to The Facility."

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**Chapter One**

Blue Krait opened the side door of the chopper and looked down. "ETA?"

"Three minutes." The pilot replied.

Blue Krait nodded and checked his weapons as he always did before the mission. His handler offered him a blood bag, and he gulped the blood down, and after that, he counted seconds until the chopper started to circle around.

"Weapon XI is in the position." His handler spoke in the microphone and then smiled at Blue Krait. "This will be your 100th kill, we need to celebrate afterward," he said and sighed deeply when Blue Krait just looked back at him. "Well, I will celebrate anyway," he said and looked into Blue Krait's red eyes. "Kill the target, take the laptop, and burn the hut."

Blue Krait nodded, put the helmet on, opened the seat belt, and jumped off the helicopter. The wind rushed in his ears as his body was falling 160Mph. Just before he hit the ground, he turned, and landed on his feet and started to run. Fifteen seconds later, he got to a small hut hidden deep in the forest.

Without slowing down, he crashed through the door and froze; the woman inside was stunning and naked. But that wasn't why he had frozen. As he looked at the beautiful naked woman, memories flashed through his mind. Memories that were rewriting the original memories of his youth, adding a girl, Dawn, to them.

The new memories opened old gates inside of his mind, and emotional connections to memories were recreated, and personality that had been dormant was freed from its mental cell. While he was looking at the naked woman, Weapon XI broke free from the Facility's mind control.

After the spell had finished creating false memories of Dawn Summers into Alexander "Xander" Harris' mind, he looked at the naked Asian woman before him feeling dazed and confused. "What the…?" He said and grabbed his head when he heard voices. "I hear voices..." He looked at the naked woman. "I'm insane."

_No, you are not, his own voice replied. We broke the mind control, and we don't have much time to escape. You must let me take control._ Then a terrible headache hit him, and Xander felt as if he'd been pulled down into a bottomless pit. He turned his scared eyes to the woman. "What's happening to me?" Then he was going down; someone or something was taking control over his mind and body.

Xander's body convulsed for a moment, and finally, he stretched his full height, cracked his neck, and turned his red, cold, and emotionless eyes to the screaming woman. "Shut up," He said and then, ignoring the terrified woman, Alex pointed his guns at the locks of the collar around his neck and pulled the triggers. He then dropped the weapons on the floor and put his fingers under the metal collar and pulled with all his might. At first, nothing happened, but, then the locks gave up, and the collar snapped into two pieces. "You have about four minutes before the backup team comes," Alex told the naked woman. "If I'd be you, I'd be gone by then." He then undressed to get rid of all possible tracking devices and got out of the building and started to run.

Alex was miles away from the cottage when he realized that, even though he hadn't killed the woman, he had left the naked Asian goddess to be killed by soldiers backing him up. It hadn't crossed his mind that she couldn't run as fast as he. Alex stopped, pondering what he should do. He sighed, knowing that it was too late to save the woman and again began to run as fast as he could.

After a few minutes, Alex heard three helicopters coming. For an hour, Alex played cat and mouse with the choppers, and then he got to a bluff. Ignoring the coming choppers, he looked down at sea, backed off from the cliff and picked a huge rock. Carrying it, he ran over the cliff and dived into the cold sea. When his feet hit the bottom of the sea, he continued running the seabed until he was surrounded by the dark waters.

The coldness and darkness of the sea didn't bother him, but he realized what his spur of a moment decision to escape from The Facility's control meant. He had broken their deal, and now all his friends were free game for The Facility. Although, he was sure that, for now, Facility would not attack them. No, they would either monitor his friends hoping that he would contact them, or they'd kidnap them to blackmail him. Alex decided to warn his friends. He dropped the stone and swam to the surface, on the horizon, he saw lights of a city. He started to swim.

Alex got off the sea in a warehouse district and jumped up to the roof of a warehouse and sat down, holding his head because his mind was bombarded by the emotions of other people. The pressure those emotions were putting on his mind was almost overwhelming. The Facility had done something that had significantly increased the pathokinetic powers he'd inherited from Jasper, and up to that moment he had always had the power dampening collar on him, so he had no experience how to block the emotions away.

Instinctively he created a rough wall inside his mind to keep the unwanted emotions away and then he broke into the warehouse below him. In the locker room, he found dirty jeans and a red t-shirt. The only shoes he found were two sizes too small for him. Alex then raided the place, there wasn't any money, but Alex found some knives, chisels, axes and all sorts of other tools used to carve wood.

He put them on a tool belt and filled his pockets with small metal beads he took out from the ball bearings he found. He had no gun, but, from experience, he knew that if he'd throw the metal beads, they'd become as lethal as bullets. Now that he was armed, he felt a lot better.

For a while, Alex sat at the desk in the office, looking at the phone, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't call his friends to warn them. By now their phones would be bugged and warning them would give The Facility a reason to attack them before they would disappear. Suddenly he got an idea whom to call he smirked and called to the phone number he had seen Phil Coulson call three months earlier.

"How can I help you?" A woman with a faint Russian accent answered.

"I want to speak to Director Fury," Alex said.

"There is no one called Fury in here."

"Listen..." Alex paused as he suddenly realized who he was talking to, "I know your voice. We met in Bucharest three months ago. Even though I broke your arm, you still almost managed to catch me. Why is Natasha Romanova, aka Black Widow, one of the head agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D answering the phone?"

"Blue Krait?" Black Widow asked without explaining why she was answering the phone.

"That is one of the names people have called me."

"Who was with me in Bucharest, and what did he say to you?" Black Widow asked.

"Phil Coulson. He promised to make me watch when he feeds my balls to a poodle and only after that he'll kill me. It was one of the most imaginative threats I've ever gotten," Alex replied. "I never figured out why he was sent to Bucharest?"

"Phil was a personal friend of the man you killed," Black Widow replied. "Do you want to surrender to the S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"No, I just want to give Fury tools to bring down Weapons program and capture their spies in S.H.I.E.L.D.," Alex said. "I know that you are recording this. Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles, Cordelia Chase, Daniel Osborne, Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce Summers, Anthony and Jessica Harris. All of them are residents of Sunnydale, California. They might be in The Facility's hit list. Protect them, and I tell you everything I know about Weapon and Weapon Plus programs. Considering that I have an eidetic memory and for three years, I was their head assassin and had access to their databases, that is a lot of information."

"Are you sure the people you mentioned are on a hit list?"

"No, but most likely they are."

"I'll talk to Nick, but I cannot promise anything."

"Don't judge them just because I'm asking to protect them. My friends are innocent, they don't know who I have become. Yes, they are my friends, I love them, and I'm willing to do almost anything to keep them safe. Tell Fury to think about that. I'll call you in ten hours, by then I want to know that my friends are protected," he said and hung up.

He needed to move fast, the next months he had to stay on the move, after a few months, the Facility would stop actively looking for him, especially if he'd spill all he knew about Weapons program and the Facility to Fury. Alex grinned, telling Fury that he had killed two of his agents would infuriate the man, but Fury was a pro; he wouldn't let his feelings interfere with his job. Fury would direct his anger against the Weapon Plus program and its leaders, which, hopefully, would keep The Facility busy enough that he could find a way to disappear.

Alex took the yellow pages and located the nearest sports & hunting shop, and then broke into it. After he'd picked up some clothes and boots, he broke the cash register and took all the money he found there. Then he packed useful things into a rucksack and ran away when the security guards came. He climbed to the roof and dressed up, and by the sunrise, he was sitting on a train protected from the sun by a thick curtain.

The sun would not kill him, but it would make his skin sparkle, and sparkling skin would creep people out.

Alex got off the train in New York City, which was big enough city for him to stay long enough to write down everything he knew about the Facility and send it to Fury. For hiding, New York was a good city; it was crowded to suffocation, but it also meant that his mind was slowly getting overwhelmed with unwanted emotions. There were too many people to keep their emotions out; Alex realized that he'd had to find a place where he could be alone.

Not an easy thing to do in the city of millions.

As he walked out of the train station, he grabbed a phone book and read it to find a Professional makeup store. One of the tricks he'd learned in the Facility was that if he used enough makeup, his skin wouldn't sparkle in the sunlight. Makeup made him look stupid, but people were used to seeing crazy looking characters. Most would just think that he was a clown or mime going home from work. He found the shop, bought a makeup kit, and when he got out of the store, the wind brought a smell of the forest, and he followed the smell to the Central Park.

Following the smell of the forest, Alex got to the park, and when he was deep in the park, Alex sighed in relief, at there he was far enough from people that the pressure around the head eased so much that he was able to think. He sat down, the mess inside of his mind began to trouble him. He had too many overlapping memories, and he was hearing the voices of the men inside of his head.

The terrified voice of a young Xander Harris wanted to die or be turned back to a human, and he wanted to go to his friends. The voice of Jasper Hale was wondering what had happened to him, and he wanted to know how his friends and family were doing. Alex shook his head, the least annoying of them all was the emotionless killer, Blue Krait, and the only one of them that he knew for sure was fully under his control and would leave the moment he commanded him. Alex bought a burner phone, hailed a cab, and got to the other side of the city. "Alexander Lavelle Harris, I presume?" A male voice answered to his call.

Alex wasn't surprised that Fury now knew his name, he had known that Fury would find it out when he had given the list of names of the people he'd wanted to be protected. "A long time ago, I used to be Alexander Lavelle Harris, but I'm not him anymore. Too much toxic water has passed under the bridge for me to ever be Xander Harris again," He replied. "The deal I want to make with you is that you'll protect my friends, and I'll deliver all I know about Weapons programs and The Facility to you."

"You are a wanted man. At least three independent states, the USA included, have given you death sentences and a six have given you a life sentence. You are a serial killer who is wanted all around the globe, and I don't make deals with serial killers."

"I'm not a serial killer; I was an assassin, emphasis on the word was. I have retired from the assassin business. I know that you want to arrest me, but I just got my freedom, I'm not eager to get behind bars. Give me a few months to enjoy the freedom, and then we can talk about me surrendering to you," Alex coolly said. "Are you going to take the deal I am proposing or not?"

Fury was silent for a moment. "What kind of info can you give me?"

"Names of the people assassinated and kidnapped by the Facility. All information about Weapon X, XI, XII, and XIII programs. The Facility also has three spies inside of the S.H.I.E.L.D," Alex replied. "As I told you; I have an eidetic memory, I remember everything I have seen or heard. Oh, and I can tell you where the bodies of the two spies you sent to The Facility are."

Again, there was a short silence. "Miss Summers, you can talk to him," Fury said.

"Xander? Is that really you?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy..." Alex paused when the younger he began to yell inside of his mind. "Oh, shut up!" He groaned in frustration.

"Huh?" Buffy said,

"Not you," Alex said, "younger me."

"Uh… Xander, what are you talking about?" Buffy asked.

"I'm suffering from a dissociative identity disorder caused by brainwashing and torture. I'm the most stable personality in this body, which, considering that I am a high functioning sociopath without the ability to feel empathy is somewhat troubling." Alex analyzed himself, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let Fury know that he was mentally unstable, knowing that only made Fury triple his efforts to find him.

But Alex also knew that as manipulative and ruthless as Fury was, he was an honorable man. If the Director of the S.H.I.E.L.D thought that the torture Xander Harris had suffered in The Facility had made him create personalities that could handle it, there was a small possibility that Fury would want to catch him alive because he would see Xander Harris as an innocent person.

Alex revealed his mental unstableness because he was sure that Fury's agents had been ordered to kill him at sight. A small chance to change that order to 'capture at sight' was better than nothing. "Now, as I told to Fury, I used to be Xander Harris, but I'm not him anymore. I'm Alex, the third persona Xander Harris has created. Think of me as Xander's ruthless and overprotective big brother. Now, forget Xander and give me a briefing about the Hellmouth. How is everyone?"

"Xander is inside of you?" Buffy asked.

"Forget him, Xander doesn't have the skills to survive in the situation I have found myself. Blue Krait is a killing machine and an assassin, but he really isn't a thinker. I was trained to be a special ops soldier. When I'm in control we have the best chance to survive," Alex said, hoping that, after the call, Buffy would confront Fury about wanting to kill her friend. Alex hoped that the emotional Vampire Slayer would start pressure Fury to catch him alive in a vain hope to get her 'Xander-shaped' friend back. "Are everyone okay?"

Buffy hesitated.

"Answer him." Fury said.

"Mom and Dawn are here; Director Fury will create new identities for them. Willow is Clea Strange's apprentice. Apparently, our Willow is a very powerful witch..."

"Ms. Summers, do not give him classified information," Fury said.

"Right, sorry, Boss. Xander, our friends, are alright and protected," Buffy said.

"Boss? You work for Fury?" Alex asked.

"I have been a S.H.I.E.L.D agent since High School graduation. S.H.I.E.L.D noticed us when we blew Mayor up," Buffy said.

"You blew Mayor Wilkins up..." Alex snorted. "Let me guess he was the biggest bad in the town?"

"You got it."

"Him being the villain makes sense and explains why the town seemed to have been built for the vampires and demons," Alex said remembering the sewer tunnels that practically were streets for the vampires move around during the days. "who guards the Hellmouth if you're working for S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Sunnydale has been evacuated and is a military base now. Faith and two S.H.I.E.L.D teams are located on the Hellmouth to keep it closed," Buffy replied.

"Faith?" Alex asked.

"She was called after Kendra," Buffy paused. "Oh, you never met either of them. You revived me when I drowned, but I was dead long enough for a new Slayer to be called. Faith reports to Council, she is—"

"Ms. Summers..." Fury warningly said.

"Sorry, Boss," Buffy said. "Anyway, Xan, you wanted to know that we're alright and protected. Now you know that we are."

"Okay," Alex said. "Fury, I will write down everything—" Suddenly he heard someone mentioning his codename, he cursed inwardly, he'd been too cocky; Fury's men were coming to get him. "Damn, Fury, you are good. I expected it to take at least two more minutes for your boys to come."

"Huh?" Fury said. "My men are still on their way."

"Shit," Alex cursed. "Then it has to be The Facility, Fury, I'll contact you later, bye for now," he said and hung up.

When he sensed someone behind him Alex spun around, but it was too late, the muzzle flash blinded him, and the bullet hit in his forehead. Blinded Alex jumped away from the threat letting Blue Krait take over, knowing that he had the best chances to survive the attack. Before he had time to escape, a rocket hit him in the back and exploded with a deafening boom, and he crashed through the brick wall. Blue Krait got up, shaking his head. His view was still blurred, but he saw dozen or so soldiers coming in. One of them was pointing him with a Milkor MGL lightweight grenade launcher.

The soldier launched a new grenade, Blue Krait ducked under it and threw a ball bearing into the soldier's head, the soldier dropped dead. Then came a flood of emotions; the mental wall Alex had built to keep the emotions of other people out of his mind had fallen, and a tidal wave of terror hit his mind; he was drowning on the terror of the other people. "GET OUT!" Blue Krait yelled, grabbing his head, wanting to kill all those annoying people.

And the blessed silence fell.

No other sounds than falling bricks, no emotions other than his own.

Silence.

Blood.

Blue Krait smelled blood, a lot of it, he cocked his head and looked at the source of the smell. He was surrounded by dead bodies. He walked to the man who still had a beating heart. Blue Krait grabbed him and ripped his throat open with his teeth. While drinking the blood, he kept his eyes on his surroundings, he wasn't going to be caught pants down again. As he fed Blue Krait watched a man dressed in black uniform with an Anti-Psi helmet on coming.

"Well, that was unexpected," The man said. Blue Krait continued feeding watching the enemy. "Strong and silent type, huh?" The black-clad man sighed. "I wasn't informed that you have psychic powers." He grinned. "It is nice to finally meet you, father."

Blue Krait tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Father?"

The man grinned. "They took your blood and made me. I'm improved version of you..." as he said that a blade came out from under his left wrist, and three claws on his right hand. "And these vibranium claws can cut you."

Blue Krait shook his head, the man had not been trained well. If the man before him had been properly trained, he would not have told his advantage to his opponent before the battle even had started. While the rookie boasted, Blue Krait was going through several different combat scenarios and planning his escape.

"Let's dance," The rookie said and leaped on Blue Krait.

Blue Krait ducked under the man's arms and jumped to the street. He grabbed the grenade launcher and pulled the trigger as the man attacked again. The grenade hit the man right in the chest, sending him flying on the wall. Apparently, his opponent's body wasn't as hard as his; the rookie didn't go through it, he just smashed on it. Blue Krait threw the empty Milkor MGL away and took an assault rifle from one of the dead soldiers.

The bones of the rookie were cracking on their places as he got up. His body might not have been hard as a marble-like Blue Krait's body, but his body regenerated at least as fast as Weapon X's body regenerated. Blue Krait took the safety off, pointed the gun at the rookie, and pulled the trigger, emptying the magazine on his face.

"Fuck!" He yelled. "you're not fighting fair!"

Blue Krait grabbed another assault rifle and started to shoot at the rookie as he leaped on him. He hit the enemy in the jaw with full strength, and rookie's eyes rolled on the back of his head as he fell, Blue Krait grabbed his left hand and used it to cut off Rookie's right hand. Then he grabbed the clawed hand from the floor and using it cut off his child's left hand. Blue Krait then lifted the armless man by the throat and using his own blade, impaled him on the wall. Under a minute, he was healed, but, like Blue Krait, he could not grow new limbs, and he wasn't going to let his limbs be reattached on him.

"You... cheated," he said.

Blue Krait let Alex took over the body. "How many of you are there?" Alex asked.

The rookie coughed. "But... they said you're a good guy... heroes don't... cheat."

"When fighting to the death, there are no rules only survivors. Answer me: how many of my child Cornelius has made?"

"Fuck you! I'm not gonna tell you, you'll kill me anyway."

"Killing you isn't the worse thing I can do to you," Alex cut off his left leg. "I can leave you alive without arms, legs." he put the blade between rookie's legs. "I'll cut off your penis and testicles too. Then I'll burn them and your arms and legs so that they cannot be reattached. If you don't want to live as an armless and legless eunuch for the rest of the eternity... tell me how many of you there are?"

The man looked into Alex's cold eyes. "Eleven," He replied. "We're called Rippers."

"Eleven, including you?"

"Twelve including me, only one in twenty-three survive the transformation."

"Thank you for your cooperation," Alex said and pulled the vibranium blade out of his child's guts, cut his head off, and picked it by the hair. He then ran out of the building, lifted the manhole cover, and jumped down as S.H.I.E.L.D agents appeared on the scene.

Moments later, when he was a few blocks away, he dropped the head down the ground and began to smash it with his foot until it was just a pile of broken bones, brains, blood, and flesh. He spread the remains of the head around the sewers, and then he got out of the sewer.

Two hours later he again was on a train.

* * *

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Emma Frost's eyes were shifting callously from a dead body to the next. She was curious to find out who had caused the destruction in New York, curious and somewhat angry. The psionic blast that had killed people in its immediate center and put dozens, if not hundreds, of people in a coma, had been so powerful that it almost had knocked down her mental walls and left a terrible headache behind.

When she got to the center of the destruction, she touched the minds of the emergency responders and cops, making them see her as a brunette man with an ill-fitting suit. She showed her empty palm to a cop. "Special Agent McGee, FBI," she said, and the cop glanced at her open palm and let her into the scene.

Emma raised her brow as she looked at the bodies of soldiers dressed in unmarked uniforms, all of them had an expression of terror on their faces. Several military grade weapons were lying around, and when she got inside of the damaged building, she saw the body of a man who had lost his arms and a leg. For a few moments, she stood there, taking in the destruction, trying to understand what had happened.

"Interesting," Emma muttered when she realized that the mutant who had shown Omega level psionic power had to have been the one who had tortured and killed the armless man. Momentarily she wasn't sure if she wanted to meet the man, anyone who could cut off arms and legs of people was either a sadistic madman or a man with a mission much like Punisher.

Emma knelt down to examine one of the bodies. His uniform was unmarked, and there was nothing in his pockets that could be used to identify him. She studied his hands; the fingerprints were burned off, and Emma was sure that dental records would not give any clue who he was. Which meant that these soldiers had been working for some secret project.

Emma then took everything the CSI team had found from their minds and more she learned about the battle that had happened more curious she got. The CSI team had come to the conclusion that the perpetrator was a trained black ops soldier.

That made Emma wonder the rawness of his psychic attack, it had felt as if the mutant had not known how to control his power and, if the CSI team was right, the man had to be at least in his mid- or late twenties. Old enough that he should have gotten his powers in control.

Emma took control of the two CSI men carrying surveillance equipment and led them to her car, and after they had put the surveillance equipment and videotapes into the trunk of her car, she erased their minds and ordered them to go back to the scene of the crime.

Emma drove to her home, where she asked the doorman to call someone to come to install the video equipment. After the equipment had been installed, she paid the engineer and then replaced the memory with a memory of him fixing a client's computer.

Two hours later, after she had watched all the surveillance videos, Emma gulped down two shots of Brandy. She had gotten a good picture of what had happened and what kind of a man the mutant was.

Not only was he a powerful telepath or empath, but he also was almost invulnerable and physically impressively strong and also nearly as fast as Quicksilver.

When he had fought with a black-clad soldier, both of them had moved so fast that on video it had looked like stop-motion animation that missed more than two-thirds of the pictures. Emma pinched the bridge of her nose, the man also had drunk blood of the dying man.

Emma had not met vampires, but, as a member of the Hellfire Club, she was well aware that they existed. Although, she had never heard of a mutant being turned into a vampire. He was an invulnerable, strong, and fast vampire who had impressive psychic power.

As she thought about the psychic attack that the man had sent, Emma began to think that he, in fact, absorbed powers, much similar way that Rogue did. And, if he didn't get memories with the powers, that would explain why he had lost the control of his psychic power.

Regardless of what his power was, Emma wanted to get this mutant-vampire under her control before X-Men or S.H.I.E.L.D got their hands on him. She wasn't sure how she could control him but planning that could wait. First, she had to find him.

Emma knew well her shortcomings, as intelligent as she was, she wasn't a detective, but she employed Private Investigators. She called to the Investigation Agency she used to find people, and an hour later a man came to pick up the surveillance footage.

After the PI had left, Emma found herself being restless and bored, to get rid of boredom she made a call, and half an hour later she let a man in. He was handsome man, a bit too muscular for her taste, but good enough. "Follow me." She said and led him into her bedroom.

Two hours later, Emma was staring at the ceiling with unblinking eyes. She had just paid the male prostitute and driven him away, she wasn't a woman who liked to cuddle after sex. Usually, sex helped her to forget her dull life, even if only momentarily, but this time, it had not helped her.

Three days later, her Investigator found the vampire, and he also had some background information about the man. Emma got into a jet, and on the flight to Kansas City, she read the man's file. Though it was a thick one, there was preciously little information about the man, but a lot of his deeds and his reputation as an assassin who never failed to kill his target.

Since most of the people he had killed had been mutants, there were rumors of him being employed by Friends of Humanity or some other human activist group. Emma wondered if his employers know that he, most likely, was a mutant. After the plane had landed, she got into the rental BMW and called to her PI., "Where is he?"

"He's taking blood from junkies. I'll send you the address." The PI replied.

"He's killing junkies?" Emma asked she didn't like how that sounded, even though they were junkies and no one probably would miss them, she was sure that Fury knew that he was a vampire and was monitoring dead and drained bodies.

"No, he takes blood from junkies much the way Red Cross does, and pays them well or gives them drugs."

Emma nodded approvingly, the man wasn't stupid, killing and draining people or breaking into the Blood Banks would raise alarms, but buying blood from junkies wouldn't be noticed. "Good, it makes tracking him a bit harder," Emma said and hung up. When the address came as a text message, she punched it on the GPS, and fifteen minutes later she met the PI, who actually looked a lot like Humphrey Bogart. "Where is he?" She asked.

"He's with three junkies inside of that abandoned house," The PI said, and then he pointed at the old Honda Civic that, one time in its life had been white but now was something between gray and brown. "That is his car, I'm sure that he'll come out soon enough," he replied and gave Emma a cooler. "Here are twelve pints of blood."

Emma took the cooler. "Good work."

"Thank you, ma'am, it always is nice to do business with you."

Emma nodded, and she had to wait almost half an hour before the vampire came out of the building. Emma saw his eyes taking in his surroundings and, though he saw her, his eyes didn't stop at her, which slightly annoyed her; the man had deemed her not to be a threat. She began to walk toward the man.

"Stop right there," He said without looking at her as he opened the door of his vehicle (Emma wasn't going to call that thing a car.)

Emma stopped. "I have here what you need," she said, raising a cooler on her hand. "Can we talk?"

The man turned to her. "Come here." He commanded.

Her tone was cold as ice as she told the vampire, "I'm not your puppet, vampire."

He shrugged. "Well, then this discussion is over. Goodbye, it was nice to meet you."

Emma hesitated for a moment and then she decided that he was worthy of a little groveling, of course, when she'd gotten him under her thrall he'd suffer for his arrogance. "Very well." She said as she went to him and gave the cooler to him.

He glanced into the cooler and then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Where'd you get these?"

Emma smirked. "You'd be amazed at what you can buy if you have enough money."

"Not really, the world revolves around money and power, and you have both," he said. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to work for me," Emma said, reaching his mind with her telepathic power.

The man's red eyes flashed in anger, and suddenly, Emma tasted metal in her mouth, and her teeth scraped against something hard. The vampire had shoved a barrel of a gun into her mouth so fast that she had not seen him moving.

"Do not try to enter into my mind again or I'll blow your brains out faster than you can think I'm dead," he calmly said.

It wasn't the first time someone threatened to kill her, but the matter-of-fact tone he said his threat alarmed Emma. Men who made angry threats usually didn't follow them through, but she was sure that he would kill her without a second's hesitation.

Emma withdrew from his mind, but she had already found the alarming fact that he had several personalities fighting over dominance. "I'm sorry, it is just a bad habit of mine," She apologetically said after he pulled the gun out of her mouth. "for an untrained mind you have and formidable barrier in your mind." She offered her hand. He didn't take it, he just looked into her eyes. "I'm Emma—"

"Emma Grace Frost, CEO, and Chairwoman of The Frost International. White Queen of the Hellfire Club, a powerful telepath, the range of your mental awareness is about a mile, max a mile and a half. And, you are alive only because I wasn't in New York City on Wednesday, you were my next target."

His statement made her nervous, but she didn't let her emotions show on her face. "Well, in that case, I am glad that you weren't in there," Emma said. "What did you mean by mental awareness range?"

"Even without consciously monitoring thoughts of the people surrounding you, in one and a half-mile radius, you will pick your name from thoughts. The plan was to shoot you two and a half miles away. Frankly, I'm surprised that you are still alive—" He paused, looked around and snarled. "Fuck!"

"What is it?" Emma asked.

Without a word, he went into his vehicle, put the cooler in the back seat, and then he looked at her. "No! Goddammit! Stop whining, she's the enemy and if she isn't... well, she's the White Queen, she can take care of herself!"

"What?" Emma asked.

"Nothing…" He replied and then he grabbed his head. "Fuck! Okay, okay, damn I hate that kid with the White Knight syndrome," He said and turned to Emma, who realized that the man was arguing with one of his other personalities. "You're alive only because someone found out that you were looking for me. They probably followed you and, since you led them to me, you have outlived your usefulness. Use your power and listen to the pair at the top of the building at two o'clock."

Emma reached with her power, and her eyes widened when she found a mind planning to kill her. "They are going to kill me."

"Yeah, I know, and I'm your only chance to get out of this alive. if you wanna survive, get into my car."

Emma wrinkled her nose to the Honda Civic. "Can't we use my car? It is more... comfortable."

"I'm sure it is, but I'm also sure that it is a death trap or, at least, it has a tracker," he said and got in the car.

Knowing that he probably was right, Emma sat down in the foul-smelling thing. The vampire started the car and drove on through the main intersection where the light was turning red. He stopped the car on lights, far down both sides of the street were stores squeezed together. "There aren't tall enough building for a sniper to shoot you from a safe distant," He said, "Use telepathy to find your name and words like Harris, White Queen, target acquired, handler, engage, and Blue Krait."

"Harris? Blue Krait?"

"My surname and one of my code names. Stop stalling and find their thoughts."

"I thought that your codename is Bloodbite," Emma said as she reached with her mind, searching the code words he had given.

"Shut up, I'm trying to find them." He replied.

"How are you—" Emma paused when he gave her an angry glance.

"Enhanced senses," he said, "six o'clock, sniper and spotter on the rooftop about a mile away. Stun them."

Emma looked at the minds of the men he had mentioned. "Oh, you're right." She knocked them out with telepathy.

"Three o'clock, another sniper and backup team, 900 yards. Twelve o'clock, four men, 1400 yards, and—" He paused. "They're everywhere, there are at least sixteen of them, four snipers and their backup teams. Most of them in a three-mile radius. Can you pick them up and… incapacitate them?"

Emma examined the minds around her as a long radius as she could. She found all sixteen and four more. "There are twenty of them in my range, I managed to knock down six, but others have some sort of wall around their minds. I'm looking for a crack on that wall. I can hear their thoughts, though..." she raised her eyebrow. "...they're going to shoot us with a Hellfire, what is that?"

"It's an air-to-surface missile, it can hurt me, but it cannot kill me, but you will cease to exists." He coolly said.

Emma nodded and then she found an entrance through the wall around the minds of the men. She tried to knock them out, but she only managed to give them a slight headache, whatever it was that protected their minds dampened her power. But, a psionic attack wasn't the only way for her to get them out of this mess.

"There's a garbage truck coming, follow it. I will take care of the soldiers. They won't see this car or the garbage truck, they'll see an eighteen-wheeler and they will think that this car is going north," She said sneaking her way into his mind and quickly taking in as many of his memories as possible.

When the garbage truck crossed the crossing the vampire pressed the accelerator down with such force that the car bolted; the tires spun under the sudden burst of speed, and he turned after the garbage truck.

Emma's eyes widened when the car's nose was practically touching the garbage truck. "Uh... aren't you driving a bit too close to the truck?" She asked while making the men see an eighteen-wheeler and the Honda driving south.

"No, my reaction time is much faster than humans," he said. "I believe I told you not to read my mind."

"Uh..." Emma said and then she decided that it was too late to say that she was sorry. "I stated that your mental barrier is impressive for someone without any training, not that I can't find my way in. But I can help you to build a better, almost impenetrable wall."

"Deal," He replied, still driving behind the garbage truck. _One change in my emotions or feelings and I'll kill her faster than humans can think,_ he thought.

"Are you sure? I'm a telepath, and our minds work fast." Emma asked.

"My body and mind work a lot faster than your mind."_ It is pointless to argue with her, if she tries to mess with my mind, she'll die._

"Alex, I'm not going to alter your mind, I may be curious to find out what kind of a man you are, but I'm not suicidal," Emma replied trying to get some sense in his overlapping memories. "In fact, I think that I can help you with the unwanted guests inside of your mind."

"Good to know," Alex replied. "They're going to be after us till the hell freezes out. I was trained by them to find people, so I know how to avoid them. For now, your only chance to live is to follow me." _I have to admit, she is good, and after her initial shock about being on the kill list, she's been calm and efficient. She has to be a strong telepath to keep us invisible when they have anti-psi helmets on and still be talking casually to me when she's scared of me._

"I'm a woman, we're known for multitasking, and yes, I am one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. Turn left and park the car. They're far behind." Emma said.

Alex pulled out behind the truck and parked at the curb, behind an ambulance, and next Emma felt a sharp pain in her neck, and then the blackness came.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Alex looked at unconscious Emma Frost, knowing that she should have been killed a week earlier, when he had gone missing the job automatically should have been transferred to someone else. There was only one reason he could think of why she was alive: she had made a deal for her life, her job was to make him a loyal slave of The Facility.

He couldn't trust her; she was a telepath who had quickly gotten access to his mind. As he began to follow the ambulance, he placed his hand around Emma's throat and pressing with his fingers cut most of the blood flow to her brains. Keeping someone unconscious without drugs is hard. You can't keep knocking them out unless you want to cause permanent brain damage.

Keeping the blood flow so low that they stay unconscious was one, albeit risky, option. When the ambulance got to the Hospital, Alex followed it to the ramp at the back where there were two ambulances.

Alex squeezed Emma's arteries so tightly together that her breathing and heart almost stopped. Then he carried her out from the car into an empty ambulance. Alex didn't have to wait for long till the paramedic, and a doctor came. He used what little he knew about empathy, and altered their emotions, made them loyal to him.

After that, it was notably easy to convince them to help him set up everything he needed to keep Emma unconscious. Paramedic helped Alex to get rid of Lojack, and Doctor even figured out how he could make Emma believe that she'd better not use her telepathy on Alex, or she'd feel pain. After Emma was tied on the stretcher and the Doctor had brought him the drugs he needed, Alex said goodbyes to the Doctor and Paramedic and drove away.

Two hours he drove and parked the car on the side of the road. He closed the IV and soon he sensed that Emma was waking up. He and the Doctor had tied her onto the stretcher, and her head was pinned on a place.

"You should not try to use your..." Alex pressed a button, sending an electric shock through Emma's brain when he felt pressure on his mind. "...telepathy, you probably noticed that it is painful. And please, do not try to move your head, or the needle inside of your brains might cause some damage."

"Needle...?" Emma muttered.

Alex placed a mirror in front of her face, placing it at an angle where she could see the thin needle that seemed to be deep inside of her brains, the Doctor had cut the needle, it pierced only the skin of her forehead, but Emma didn't know that. All she saw was a needle and a small trail of blood on her forehead.

"I am an empath, and I was scientists favorite test subject for months, and I learned that psychic abilities lie on the frontal lobe. A small electric current makes it harder to use it." Alex moved the mirror so that Emma could see the medical equipment surrounding her.

"Every time you try to use telepathy, you will get an electric shock like the one you just had, every shock is harder than previous and kills more brain cells. I calculated that ninth shock will have the same effect than the lobotomy, leaving you as a vegetable. Do not use telepathy, do you understand? Verbal answers only. Is that clear?"

"Yes," Emma said.

Alex sensed her terror. He wasn't surprised, the most people would have been terrified when their head was tied with leather bands, and there appeared to be a thick needle inside of your brains, and you just had had a painful electric shock.

Alex remembered how terrifying it, for the first few times had been when they had done that to him for real. After ten or so times, he had gotten used to getting shocks. "Good," Alex said, placing the mirror so that she could see the needle on her forehead. "what is the pin code for the Amex?"

"8346."

"Lie again, and I will drop you on a dumpster and call Facility where to find you."

Emma whimpered and said, "9773."

"Now I believe you, I'll withdraw a couple thousand when we get to the next city." Alex said. "now, did you make a deal with The Facility?"

"No."

Alex arched an eyebrow. "Do you really think I believe that they left you alive because you are cute?"

"I didn't know someone wanted to kill me." Suddenly Alex felt her trying to get into his mind, and he pressed the button, and she screamed in pain when the electric shock hit her.

"I said that it would be painful, please do not try to use your telepathy, I don't like to listen you screaming. My ears are very sensitive, and your screams hurt me." Alex said, hoping that she wouldn't have noticed a slight delay between using her ability and pain.

"Sorry... it is... natural for me.. to re-re-ad... mi-minds." Emma stammered tears running down her cheeks.

"Then suppress your nature, it's not that difficult, after all, it is my nature to drink your blood and kill you, and I haven't done that." Alex paused for a minute to think. If she hadn't done any deals, there had to be another reason why she was still alive. "how did you find me?"

"I don't know. I have people who do things I don't have time to do."

Alex nodded, knowing that she was the type of a leader who wouldn't micromanage. She'd give job for someone and expect them to handle it. "To whom did you give the job?"

"Hungate and Richards, they are private investigators I often use."

"Are they expensive?" Alex asked.

"Yes, but they also are excellent investigators."

"Of course, they are." Alex said and reached to the IV and speed up the sedatives flowing into her veins to make it harder for her to think straight. "now, teach me how to build a proper mental barrier. Remember that you can't use telepathy. Teach me the old-fashioned way."

Next half an hour, Emma explained to Alex how to build a proper better mental barrier. When her words started to get tangled up, Alex took the needle out so that it wouldn't hurt her while he was driving. After Emma had fallen back to sleep, he changed the sedatives to sodium thiopental to make her fall into a medical coma.

Alex drove for several hours listening to Emma's slow and calm heartbeat, driving without any thoughts. A few hours later, he parked the car, opened the cooler and took out a blood bag, and sat there watching the breathtaking desert sunrise.

Enjoying his freedom, Alex watched how the sky turned from gray to pink, orange, red, and finally to clear blue. He had an eidetic memory, he remembered every smell, sound, color, every emotion of the people he had met, but he couldn't remember if he ever actually had watched the sunrise when he had still been Xander Harris.

His eidetic memory covered only his life as a vampire. He put the sunglasses on and watching the mountains on the horizon, trying to remember what it had looked like when he had still had human eyes. But he couldn't remember.

Everything, before he had been turned into a vampire, was just short, fuzzy, almost incomprehensible flashes of memories. And everything after his transformation was so vivid and clear that he missed that hazy memory, he would have loved to forget most of the time he'd been working as an assassin for The Facility. Alex sighed, having eidetic memory was a burden as well as an advantage, and the same went with the inability to sleep.

He missed dreams almost as much as he missed eating solid food.

He got up, went back into the car, and started to drive. At the next town, he stole more drugs from a hospital and license plates from a van and bought a postcard displaying a sunrise in desert and spray paints. He then stripped the ambulance from lights and sirens and painted the sunrise and the sunset on the van. He wasn't an artist, but his vampiric muscle control and mind made it easy for him to copy the postcard on the sides of the ambulance. It was flashy but not as conspicuous as an ambulance.

He then wrote down everything he knew about the Facility and posted the document to Fury. Knowing that Weapon X sometimes worked for Fury too, he also posted a copy of the document to Wolverine.

On the third day, he woke Emma up. Weak from the effects of the drug, Emma moaned and tried to wither. "Don't try to move, you'll only hurt yourself," Alex said.

Her eyes fixed on him. "My mind is cloudy..." she finally managed to get out and then she silently stared at him for few moments before speaking again. "Thirsty..."

Alex opened a water bottle and put straw on her lips, she began to drink slowly. He watched her coming out from her medical daze, drinking in her every small movement, her every cryptic quirk of expression. Emma tried to get into his mind, and as the electric shock went through her body, she screamed.

"I can understand why you have done this. I am a telepath, and you fear I will take control of your mind." Emma finally said.

"Wouldn't you?" Alex asked.

"Probably, but I'd only make you as my loyal servant." She replied.

"You would punish me because I did this."

Emma opened her mouth to deny his statement, then she snorted. "Yes, I am a vindictive person. I would make you suffer."

Alex nodded. "I know, but I am..." He paused realizing something. "usually, I would have killed you by now, but I can't seem to be able to do that.. you already did something to me while you were inside of my mind, didn't you?"

"Indeed," Emma replied without haste. "I know who you are, so I made it impossible for you to kill me, even thinking about killing me should cause you some pain."

Alex nodded, that explained why he had taken such good care of her. He imagined ripping Emma's head off, and it gave him a headache. But he also found out that Emma was wrong; it wouldn't be easy, but he could kill her. "I can keep you in a medical coma forever."

"Yes, I am aware of that, and I'm sorry that it never occurred me that you might keep me comatose. Do you have any ideas on how we can make a deal that would satisfy both of us?"

"What kind of a deal?"

"You release me, and tell me who it is that wants us dead and keep me alive till I have figured a way out from the danger," Emma said. "and in return, I will..." she frowned, "what do you want?"

"I need to learn how to keep all those emotions out from my mind."

"I can teach you how to build a good psi-block, and help you to build a new identity."

"That would be a good deal, but I cannot trust you."

"But, if you could trust me, you would accept those terms?" Emma asked.

Alex nodded if she could trust her, what she was suggesting was a good deal. "Yeah, that would be acceptable."

"Good, we have a deal. As a bonus I will fix the mess you have inside of your mind," Emma said.

Alex looked at her inquiringly. "Huh?"

"There are at least two sets of memories in your mind and, and you have at least two personalities—"

"Three, maybe four," Alex replied. "You aren't telling me anything I don't already know, original me didn't cope with the pain and things they did to me, and he withdraw deep into my mind and emotionless, fearless killer they gave the code name Blue Krait took his place. When Xander's memories were rewritten, I emerged from the mess inside of my/our mind. And Jasper Hale still is in my mind." He paused. "Okay, what the hell did you do to me? Why did I tell all that to you?"

Her face lit and a half smirk appeared on her mouth. "Praying mantis lady," she said, and Alex scowled as his body froze, and he couldn't move a muscle. "Release me." Emma continued, and his hands withdraw the needle out from her face.

"A trigger phrase," Alex said as he untied her. "You put a trigger into my mind, and you were just stalling long enough for the effect of the drugs to fade so that you could think straight."

"Exactly, I realized that it wasn't automatic pain, you caused it." Emma sat up. "your body is in my control now, but I have to admit that I am surprised how strong willed you are. I cannot take control of your mind."

"If I ever will get my free will back, I will kill you." Alex snarled.

Emma chuckled and cupped Alex's face. "I don't think so. I may be a vindictive bitch, but I'm also a businesswoman. We made a deal, and I am going to keep my part of it." She sighed. "truthfully I am between a rock and a hard place; those men were after me too, and what I got from their minds they have battalions of men looking for us.

"They have connections even inside the Hellfire club, someone in there arranged my assassination. I don't trust you, but you know how to avoid them, and you have skills to do something about the bounty hanging over our heads. The deal is; I'll teach you, and you keep me alive and till you or I find a way to cancel the contract about our heads."

"I don't have much choice. I will keep you alive while we're looking a way to bring them down."

Emma nodded. "First, I'll fix Jasper's memories."

"What—" Alex was going to ask what she was planning to do, but it was too late, Emma had already dived into his mind and taken control. He felt how Jasper's memories were changing shape. He saw flashes of Jasper's memories, and as he watched them, the man in them changed his appearance; instead of Jasper, it was Alex Harris. She's replacing Jasper with me in those memories.

_[Indeed, those memories are useful, he knew how to use his ability, so I don't have to teach that to you.]_ Emma replied to his thought.

"I don't wanna lose memories of Willow and Jesse."

Emma didn't answer, but Alex saw how Jasper's childhood memories were replaced by Alex Harris' memories. Then Emma got to the 1940s.

_[Do you want to remember being married to Alice?]_ Emma asked.

"No," He replied. Alex didn't want to have those memories, Jasper and Alice, they were cute together, but it only reminded him what he had never had, and probably would never have; loving and trusting relationship.

_[I'll make her and Jasper your vampire siblings.]_ Emma replied and pushed Alex back on the passenger's seat and continued arranging his memories.

After a long time, Emma took her hands off from Alex's face. "There, how does that feel?" she asked.

Alex frowned. "I don't feel... any different. I feel like I'm... me," He paused. "Except that, I now feel annoyingly comfortable with you,"

"That actually isn't my doing, I think it is in both, Xander Harris' and Jasper Hale's nature to trust strong alpha-females," Emma laid back on the stretcher. "That was... more exhausting than it should have been." She looked into Alex's eyes. "when were you born?"

"February 12th, 1844..." Alex frowned that had been the first date that came to his mind. Having memories of 156-year-old Alexander "Xander" Whitlock in his mind was slightly confusing, but he knew who he was, and the voices in his head were gone. "well, shit, Feb 12th is today..." Xander shrugged. "So I'm 156 today, and my name is Alexander Whitlock." He frowned. "Who is Whitlock?"

"Whitlock is Jasper's original surname," Emma said. "I was too tired to fix everything, so I locked Harris and Hale out of your mind and, at the moment you are a mixture of Blue Krait and Alex. Your mind is a lot more complicated than the ordinary mind. Your mind is just like a telepath's mind; layers over layers. One session wasn't enough to fix all the problems in your mind, but now you should not have extra voices in your head."

Xander nodded. "Makes sense, I'm an empath. So, did you make me your loyal servant?"

"No, but I did make you unable to physically hurt me, and you do have an urge to protect me." Emma shrugged. "a deal is a deal; I'll teach and fix you, and you'll protect me. But you scared me, I haven't been scared in ages, and I can't let that go unpunished."

Suddenly Xander was back at The Facility, being cut open, clutching on the bed, the pain was so keen. Knowing that it was a memory, Xander cut off the emotions and feelings connected to the memory. He was curious to see why Emma had brought him back to this memory. He looked down at his thighs, seeing a doctor cutting off his leg while another medical personnel was watching. His leg was put on the table beside him.

Suddenly Emma screamed, and Xander was out of his own mind, in the real world and terrified Emma was lying on the stretcher, gasping in pain. She opened her eyes and clasping on Alex's hand let out incoherent pleas for mercy.

Xander cocked his eyebrow; it was a vivid and surprising change; Gone was the cocky White Queen, she'd been replaced by a sobbing, terrified woman. The fear was present in her blue eyes as she looked into Alex's eyes.

"I.. shouldn't... how... how can you be sane after... I've never... felt such pain... and I felt just echo of it, how can you ..." Emma stammered. "how come you're in one piece?"

"I'll survive as long as my head is intact, and they never cut off my head. If the parts of me that are taken away are given back, my body will reattach them," Xander explained. "and pain... pain is a friend. When I am in pain, I know I'm alive." He smirked. "I think your punishment hurt you more than me,"

"Worst memories and multiplying their effect in mind... that usually makes people beg for my forgiveness. "

"You should know this, you were inside of my mind. I begged, for months I begged them to kill me, stop it... they never did, they only cut off my tongue, which grew back, so they kept cutting it off. I prayed to God to make them cut my head off," Xander shrugged. "God never answered."

"I'm... sorry..." For a second, Xander could sense her being petrified with fear and guilt, her mental barrier was down, and he sensed all of her emotions. She looked into his eyes. "I'm sorry... I really am..."

"Don't be, you didn't do any of it."

"I... brought it back to punish you,"

"Yeah, I got that, but apparently you don't understand what having an eidetic memory actually means. I'd be insane if I hadn't learned how to cut off connections between memories and emotions." While talking to Emma, Xander tried to figure out how to create a link between her emotions. "Apparently, you felt what I felt back then."

Emma nodded and then her moment of weakness was over, and her mental barrier was up again, but Xander had managed to create a tenuous link into her emotions so that Emma could not keep him out of her mind; he could read some of her feelings.

"Ah, yes, it seems that you are still connected to my mind," Emma said, and Xander felt how she tried to cut the thread that was his connection to her emotions. As hard as she tried, she couldn't cut it off. "I seemed not to be able to reach it, I guess it is fair, I have a connection to your mind..." she laughed as if she'd just heard a good joke. "you are right, I am a manipulative, self-centered bitch."

"I could cut my link to your emotions, but I kinda like to be tracking your feelings. Makes interacting with you easier." Xander said.

Emma chuckled. "With the ability to read women's emotions, you'll grow up to be a ladies man."

"I've never understood women... or myself for that matter..." Xander replied, and then he realized that Emma had molded his memories and his personality. "can you tell me who am I now?"

Emma gave Xander a self-satisfied smirk. "After a few more sessions you will be Dr. Frost's monster." she paused, took a good look at Alex, and a seductive half-smile appeared on her mouth. "and you are a beautiful boy—"

"A man," Xander stated. "regardless of what I look like, according to my memories, I am 156 years old man. You of all people should know that. After all, you are my creator."

"True, it'll be fun to seduce you." Emma yawned. "...I'm tired. Wake me up when you find a Hotel, and then I will enter into your mind, and I'll work there for hours to fix the mess that is your mind. Good night." she said, leaned back in the seat and immediately fell asleep.

* * *

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Emma watched Alex laying on the bed, a wayward lock of his soft dark brown hair was trailing down over one eyebrow, and she brushed it behind his ear. Nine days she had been working with his mind, and now she was finished. As she waited for him to say something, she tried to find any imperfection on his face.

His young face was perfectly symmetric, almost unearthly handsome as was his well-toned body; he was a prime example of the male beauty. If he'd decide to become a model, the model agencies would be fighting over him. While fixing his dissociative identity disorder, Emma had gone through his mind and she knew that before he'd been turned into a vampire, he had been a cute boy, but not nearly as attractive as he was now.

The venom that had turned him into an undead being had corrected all flaws in him.

Emma was not bothered by her attraction to him; that was a natural reaction to his beauty. What bothered her was how, during the process fixing him, she too had started to change. More she had molded him to her liking more attached to his mind and not just his perfect body she had gotten.

Initially, Emma had planned to make Alexander her loyal bodyguard, but, for the reasons beyond her understanding, she had not done that. Emma didn't feel any remorse about changing Xander's personality, the way she saw; Xander Harris had been flawed, and she had fixed him. As she watched him, it suddenly dawned on her that she might have molded him as close to her dream man as possible.

That notion annoyed her, she was Emma Frost, she didn't need any man to save her.

_She didn't need any man on her side!_

_And, she surely didn't have a dream man!_

"I kind of feel like I'm... complete," Alex said. "No, that's not right. It's hard to explain, I feel like I now am a man who I should have always been, and for the first time in my life, I fully accept who and what I am now. In fact, I love myself now." He glanced at Emma. "You didn't make me overly narcissistic, did you?"

Emma snorted. "No, the world can handle only one Emma Frost."

"Ain't that true." Alex sat up. "What exactly did you do to me?"

"You are an amalgam of Xander Harris, Alex, and Jasper Hale. I kept all the best parts of all three of them—"

"The best parts according to you," Alex said.

"Of course, who would be a better person to judge which parts of you are best than I?"

Alex laughed. "Yeah, who indeed? Please, my creator, my goddess, continue, your loyal subject is eager to hear the words of wisdom you want to share with him."

Emma chuckled. "It's nice to hear that you finally realized that I am, indeed, your goddess... Anyway, as I was saying before you rudely interrupted me: you are an amalgam of Xander Harris, Alex, and Jasper Hale. I also left Blue Krait's impressive set of skills, they will be useful in the future, but I made sure that his..." She paused. "he really didn't have a personality. He was just a very sophisticated assassin, not quite a machine, but not far from it. I made sure that he is not there anymore, but his skills are. I also adjusted some of your personal traits to my liking."

"Yeah, I bet you did," Alex said. "so, I'm an amalgam of Xander, Alex, and Jasper with Blue Krait's skillsets and your perversions?"

"Wasn't that what I just said?"

"Yeah, just checking."

"Although, I didn't need to recreate my perversion into you. Xander Harris had an impressive set of sexual fantasies he had pushed deep into his unconscious mind. I only had to erase the shame he associated with them."

"Shame is an emotion."

"And you are an empath, when controlling your mind I have access to your power."

"Of course, you do," Xander sighed. "So, I'm a pervert now?"

"That depends on the definition you have for the word pervert. I prefer the term sexually free-spirited and open to new experiences."

Alex chuckled. "I'm sure you do. So, I'm Alexander "Xander" Whitlock, a man who was born 1844, fought in the Civil War, got turned into a vampire and has lived 156 years. It is kind of strange to know that all that is a lie and yet it feels true to me."

"Alex, it would be best if you'd just accept that you are Alex Whitlock now."

"I know. Call me, Xander. Alex was Xander, who had lost his innocence and had become a cynical and opportunistic man. I'm kind of Alex with Xander's hopefulness."

"I am not calling you with that stupid and childish name." Emma firmly stated.

"Whatever," Xander said. "You don't need to suffer my company for a long anyway. By now Fury should have made his first moves against The Facility, and they'll have their hands full trying to relocate their operations. In a week or two, you can go back to your life, but I still have to be on the run for a few months. Do you happen to know any safe houses? Places that no one can connect to you,"

"No, unfortunately, I don't, my life is quite public," Emma said.

"That's a shame," Xander said. "are you hungry?"

"I'm starving." Emma took out her makeup purse. "Come here and sit down, we need to fix your face."

"Huh?"

"Your skin sparkles in the sunlight, and I don't want you to hide your beautiful face behind the large sunglasses and hood or that terrible makeup you sometimes use. I'm sure that with a good foundation and good makeup, I can hide those sparkles and still make you look like a human being."

Xander sighed. "You can try."

The next half an hour, Emma was making his makeup, and Xander felt strange. When she was finished, he looked at himself in the mirror. "Amazing, you put layers and layers of stuff on my face, and it still looks natural."

"Thank you, there was no need to hide anything in your face. You are naturally beautiful," Emma said and opened the door. "Let's see how it works in the sun."

Xander got up and stood in the sunlight.

Emma nodded. "That's acceptable. Looks a little strange, like you'd have the TV-makeup on. However, I'm sure that no one will pay too much attention to you." She said and slid her arm into his, "Let's get in, I'm starving."

"Wouldn't you be able to make people ignore my sparkling skin?" Xander asked.

"Yes, but I will not always be there to do that," Emma said. "And I think you could just make them feel bored when they look at you then they wouldn't be alarmed by your paleness."

"Good idea, I'll try that sometime," Xander said. "Anyway, from now on, you'll do my makeup."

"I can teach you to do that," Emma replied.

"I know, but it was relaxing to just sit there and let you brush my face."

Emma snorted. "I'll still teach you to do it, in fact, when this mess is over I'll hire a professional to create makeup for you and teach you to do it."

When they entered the Motel's Diner, the most men turned to look at her as she got in and Xander wrinkled his nose as they sat down on the corner table. "What smells so bad?" Emma asked.

"The damn arousal of the men looking at you," He replied.

Emma chuckled. "You are annoyed that other men are attracted to me," she said with a sultry voice before she kissed him on the cheek.

"Yeah, I'm possessive about you, and you love that," Xander admitted.

Emma took his hand and placed it on her cheek. "Of course, I do, I like a little possessiveness in my man." Then she sucked the tip of his forefinger, wrapping her tongue around it before she got up. "I need to use the bathroom, enjoy their stares while I'm away," She said and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before walking away, putting a little extra sway to her hips.

When she sat down on the toilet seat, Emma telepathically attacked Xander's mind, she had given him the knowledge about building a mental shield, and he had put it in good use; his psi-block didn't crumble under her attack. After she was sure that his barrier would hold she gave his mind a telepathic equivalent of knocking on the door and after a moment he opened a door for her to enter his mind.

Emma examined his mind, not to see if she'd done an excellent job merging his memories and personalities to one personality, but to find out why he was so reluctant to have sex with her. It had started to annoy her, she wanted him, and she knew that he wanted her, so why did he decline her offer?

Not knowing why he didn't want to have sex with her was not only an annoyance but also a professional insult; she should have known everything about him. After searching his mind for a few minutes, she found the reason. Emma snorted and got off from his mind.

"You do know that you have memories of having sex with a human? It doesn't turn us." Emma said when she got back to the table.

"I know, but I'm still afraid that it'll turn or hurt you."

"Well, I wouldn't complain if you'd turn me, then I'd be as perfect as I am forever."

"I'm not yet ready to give you the bite," Xander said. "I might do that someday, though, immortalizing your beauty would make the world a little brighter place."

"Why, thank you, Alex," Emma said. "And the hurting me… I wasn't going to tell you this, it is my insurance… but it is already fixed."

"How?"

Emma smirked. "Ladybug," she said. Momentarily Emma was tempted to ask him to hit her hand as hard as he could, but then she thought again. Even if she had made sure that he could never hurt her, there still was no use to endanger herself. "Grab the steel foot of the table and squeeze it as hard as you can," she said.

Xander leaned down and squeezed the steel leg of the table. As hard as he pressed, nothing happened. The steel should have broken under his fingers, but now he seemed to have lost his strength. "How?"

"Another trigger, I say Ladybug, and it triggers the restrictions I put into your mind how much force you can use. I can give you access to that trigger too so that you can use to activate those restrictions. When the restrictions are on, you won't have to worry that you'd break the bones of your partner if you get too carried away because you are less than twice as strong as a human. Although, you still are dangerous because of your invulnerability, to that I cannot do anything."

Xander sighed deeply. "Do it."

Emma got into his mind and began to work, altering the trigger was easy, but she also needed to plant another trigger for her use only. When she was finished, she looked into his red eyes. "The trigger is in your use too. You don't need to say the word out loud, just think _'Ladybug'_ and the restriction are on, and _'Buglady'_ and they are off."

"You're having way too much fun with the Praying Mantis Lady incident," Xander sighed and leaned down and lightly squeezed the table leg, this time leaving dents on it without really trying. "I like this trigger. Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"I'm grateful, although, I know that you still have planted some other triggers into my mind," Xander said, looking over her shoulder. "They think that I'm your boy toy."

Emma smirked wiggling her brows. "Yes, I am aware of that, but what else could they think? A beautiful young boy with an older woman who..." She caressed Xander's cheek. "Don't seem to be able to keep her hands off from the boy."

"My beauty was caused by magic. I didn't look this good before I was turned," Xander replied. "And you are addicted to power, and you seem to think that I am a powerhouse. If I get involved with you, it'd be easy for you to manipulate me to do what you want. It is logical for me not to get attached to you."

Emma got up and round the table. "True, I am going to use you to gain more power, but, trust me, you will enjoy it, and I promise that it will pay well to be loyal to me." She sat beside Xander and leaned on him clutching on his arm when the beautiful young waitress who had lustful thoughts about Xander brought her breakfast. Emma icily thanked the waitress, moving her body so that Xander's arm now was squeezed between her breasts she nibbled his ear, making him shiver.

"Why did you act like that?" Xander asked after the waitress had gone.

Emma smirked. "I needed to send a message that you belong to me."

"I don't belong to anyone."

"Yes, you do, I made you, so, you belong to me," Emma replied. "I'm hungry like a wolf."

Emma ran her tongue over her upper lip before she took the first forkful of her food. She chewed for a moment before she again licked her lips, leaving a thin, glistening sheen on her mouth. "Have you seen Lady and the Tramp?"

"Yeah, who hasn't?" Xander growled. "Why do you think I would reenact the spaghetti scene with you?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Emma pouted.

"Maybe because you are a manipulative bitch, and I don't want to be part of your games. Eat up, we still have a long drive ahead of us."

Emma pouted. "Fine, ruin my fun," she said.

As she continued to eat with her left hand, she kept caressing his thigh, three times he pushed her hand away, and four times she put it back, and he gave up and let her do what she wanted to. Emma stroked his inner thigh until she had eaten, and then she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I don't like your game. You increased my attraction to you. What you are trying to do is cruel and terribly selfish, you know that you smell like a yummy treat to me, and you know well that if I fall in love, it'll last forever," Xander said when they had gotten back to the car. He grabbed Emma by the throat, squeezing hard. "I say this only once: if I ever start having any deeper feelings toward you, I will rather crack your skull and feed your brains to dogs than mate with you." He bared his teeth to her. "Is that clear?"

Emma gasped air for a while. "Clear as day," she finally said. For half an hour, Emma was thinking about what he had said. "I'm sorry, I had forgotten that your kind mates for life."

"Yeah, sure."

"It is the truth, and, for the record, I didn't."

"You didn't do what?"

"I didn't do anything to your feelings toward me. I didn't need to, you are attracted to me, and it is a natural feeling," Emma said. "And you should remember that you are an empath. If you don't want to feel something you can just use your power and get rid of the emotions you don't like. I do that to myself all the time."

Xander was silent for a long time. "Why should I believe that you haven't messed with my mind and made me more attracted to you?"

"I'm not lying," Emma said. "Alex, I do like you a lot."

Xander glanced at her. "Why?"

Emma shrugged. "I'm a shallow and boastful woman. There are times when a businesswoman needs to have an escort, and if I have to have a man beside me, I want him to be handsome. You are powerful and a handsome man who never will grow old."

"And you like to shock people and a businesswoman bringing young boy as her escort would cause some waves. But there was a but at the end of that sentence."

Emma took a deep breath. "About half of your personality is my creation. Just enough for you to be my liking and not too much to take the element of surprise away and, quite annoyingly, I find myself trusting you more than I have trusted anyone since my college boyfriend left me because I am a mutant." She again stroked her throat, Xander had squeezed her hard. "You can fall in love more than once, you know that, don't you?"

Xander pushed the gas pedal on the floor, the engine howled, and the car rocketed forward. He was driving the narrow and winding country road as fast as possible lights switched off. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. From Jasper's memories, I got that the mating with another vampire can happen only once... but it doesn't mean you cannot fall for–Oh God!" Emma said when the car was on the four-wheel slide, and it scratched the rock on the side of the road. "Slow down!" she pleaded.

"What do you mean?" Xander asked.

"The bond with another vampire is forever, and it can happen only once, but you can fall in love more than once. You just will never fall off from love... please, Alex, please, please, slow down! You won't die if we crash but I will!"

Xander stepped on the brake pedal and parked the car on the roadside. "Are you sure about the falling in love thing?"

Emma nodded, "Examine your memories, and you'll find that Jasper was sure of that. Mating happens only once, but you can fall in love many times. Although, if Jasper is right, you will never fall off from love, that's pretty much how it goes with everyone. Even though I hate the only man I have ever loved, part of me still loves him and probably always will."

Xander nodded. "We still have a long way ahead of us."

"Yes..." Emma said as Xander pushed the gas pedal and the car again rocketed forward. She quickly put the seatbelt on. Emma closed her eyes and started to slowly breathe in and out. Trying to convince herself that, even though Xander was driving like a madman she was safe; his reflexes were far better than human reflexes, and he saw perfectly well even when the headlights were turned off. "How attracted to me are you?" She asked.

"More than I like."

Emma waited for him to continue, but when she realized that he would not go on, she sighed. "Is it so bad that you are attracted to me?"

"No," Xander replied, "but that's not all, annoyingly, I want to protect you, and I have... tender feelings toward you, and I don't want to fall for a self-centered bitch."

"I may be a bitch, but I'm not just a bitch. I'm a woman and, as much as I like to deny it, I do have feelings and needs, some of which are all too sweet and make me vulnerable."

"Then, if you want me, you should let me see the vulnerable side of you."

Emma looked at him. "I have shown more of myself to you than anyone since I was a young and naive girl. Do you think that I'm this open to everyone?"

"I don't know, and I still don't trust you." Xander chuckled. "However, because I don't trust you, I do trust you a little. Not trusting you tells me that you didn't make me unconditionally loyal to you."

"I could say the same; I do trust you a little." After she had admitted that, Emma didn't want to talk about their relationship. She closed her eyes; she needed to get some rest.

Four hours later, Emma woke up with the feeling that she was in danger, but when she opened her eyes, she could see nothing to give her any cause for alarm. Deciding she must have been dreaming, Emma was about to compose herself to sleep again, when she suddenly realized that the car was parked, and she was alone. _[Where are you, and why did you leave me alone?]_ She telepathically asked.

_[You needed to get some sleep. I'm o__n top of the car.]_

When she got out of the car, she found Xander lying on the roof of the car. "Why are you there?"

"Skywatching."

"Excuse me?" Emma said, looking at the sky, she had to admit that when the lights of the city didn't dim the sky, the night sky was a somewhat beautiful sight.

"You cannot have any idea how beautiful the night sky is to my eyes." Xander turned to his side and smiled at her. "The stars up there, illuminating the sky," He said, turning back on his back. "It is beyond beautiful. I guess that even though the sun doesn't hurt us, our eyes still are made for the night."

Emma got curious, Xander moved out of her way as she climbed up and lay beside him. "Can I see through your eyes?"

"Yeah," Xander said, opening his mind to her.

Emma gasped in shock when she looked at the sky through his eyes. He had not lied; it was beyond beautiful. Trillions and trillions of small lights, all of them a slightly different color, illuminating the sky. It looked as if the heaven was pulsating with living multicolored light.

It was the best fireworks she'd ever seen, and the beautiful flowers of light didn't disappear like fireworks did. For a long time, they laid there, watching the night sky. "You're right, it is beyond beautiful." Emma finally said.

"Which reminds me," Xander said and turned his head.

Emma blinked when a beautiful, slightly glowing face appeared in her sight. At first, as she looked at herself through his eyes, she smiled; she looked to be what she had always thought she was; a goddess.

Then, she saw the pulsating vein in her neck. When she saw the blood flowing inside of her veins, she realized that Xander saw a wider part of the electromagnetic spectrum than she did. At least, he saw the infrared.

Xander pushed her out of his mind. "You are beautiful, but sometimes it is hard not to bite you, not because I want to drink your blood, but because I want to turn you. I can only imagine how beautiful you'd be after the vampire venom had fixed all the small flaws in you."

Momentarily Emma was baffled by his honesty, and then she realized what he had said, and she snorted. "Girl always loves to hear that she is a flawed beauty."

Xander shook his head. "That's just it, the flaws are interesting. The venom that turns people into my species of vampire fixes all flaws in the body, even the facial bone structure changes. Everything in us is symmetric," he said. "But the tiny imperfections are what gives the face its character, can you honestly say that my face is interesting?"

Emma looked at Xander's angelic, almost too beautiful face. "Yes." She touched his cold cheek. "Yes, my Ladybug, your face is interesting and attractive."

She bent her head and kissed his cold lips, finding out that they were strangely soft and hard at the same time. When she felt him hesitating, she ran her tongue between his lips, and he opened them. The kiss ignited the flames that had been blazing inside of her for days. She groaned in frustration when he gently pushed her away.

Then she grinned at him. "With some practice, you'd become a great kisser, Buglady."

Xander chuckled. "So, what kind of degree my kiss got?"

Emma sat up and looked at him. "I'd say… B+"

"Well, I'm sure I can do better, I've kissed a lot," Xander said. "Although, in this body, that was my first real kiss."

Emma swung her legs over the side of the car. "In that body?" She asked as he took a firm hold from her waist and lifted her down.

Xander shrugged. "I still felt somewhat confused, so I started to think that I have switched bodies. I'm Alexander Whitlock in a new body, one that is kind of a clone of myself."

Emma nodded. "Sounds good, although, I think that I might have to look into your mind to see that I didn't make any mistakes," she said. "You've never kissed a girl?"

Xander snorted. "You know well that I have memories of kissing. I was just a kid when The Facility caught me and, trust me on this; kissing wasn't their priority when they trained me."

"Okay, I think that I understand what you mean," Emma smirked. "You do know that now I'm going to find a way to get your virginity?"

He laughed. "A new notch into your belt, huh?"

Emma wiggled her brows. "A notch that I will get and I'm making you punch that notch into my belt."

"Yeah, I kinda think that that would be just what you'd do," Xander replied.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't make you do all the work. I'm a good lay, even if I say so myself."

"I bet you are," Xander replied. "We should start moving. We've used this car for two days, I'll have to steal a new one."

Emma looked at the old S-class Mercedes. "I like this car more than any of the others we've used. It is a classic."

"And too flashy for us. We're on the run, not making an appearance."

"I hate the life of a fugitive." Emma pouted. "I would appreciate getting a chance to use a bathroom, shower, and eat."

"I bought a map from the last gas station," Xander said. "Twenty-three miles ahead there is a Holiday Inn, we can spend the day in there."

"Thank you," Emma said.

"Could you stop poking my mind?" He asked.

"Sorry, reading the minds of the people near me is just my instinctive reaction, just like you read people's emotions," Emma said and raised her brow. "And you just let me in without even trying to stop me."

"Yeah," Xander replied. "There is no need to keep you out when you've molded me what you want me to be."

"No, I didn't," Emma said, realizing that she was telling the truth. She could have molded him to be whoever she wanted, and yet she had not done that. All she had done was to fix the mess inside of his mind as well as possible. Granted, she had fixed some flaws in his personality, but Emma doubted that he wanted to get Xander Harris' insecurities back. "Do you think that you could say no to me if I'd molded you to my liking?"

"Yes, yes, I do," Xander replied. "You want to have someone who you can trust enough to let them be your equal." He glanced at her. "Like all controlling people, you want to have someone you can trust enough to let them see you in your weakest moments. You want to have someone you can trust so he can be strong for you when you want to be weak."

Emma laughed. "If that is what you want to believe," She patted his knee. "darling, I can be whoever you want."

* * *

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

While Emma used the toilet in the small gas station, Xander bought some snacks and drinks for her. The clerk stared at him with wide eyes as he was piling things on the counter. "What the hell kind of freak are you?" He asked.

Xander looked at him, Emma had planted all her knowledge about empathy into his mind, and he decided to test his power on the clerk. If he'd mess something up, Emma could fix it and erase the man's memories. Xander took his sunglasses off and smiled. "A vampire."

He chuckled. "Nice contacts."

"They are not contacts, my eyes are red; I'm an albino," he said when he found the clerk's emotions that he instinctively knew were connected to the lust.

Xander wanted to test what would happen if he'd raise the levels of that particular set of emotions. The clerk's eyes widened, he moaned and looked down at his crotch. Xander pulled a little harder, bringing his arousal high up, and the man groaned, his face was flustered, and then his eyes glazed and his body started to shiver.

Xander grinned and pulled a little more, and the clerk's eyes closed. His face contorted, and he moaned something incomprehensible as he fell down from the stool.

"OH, GODDDD!" He grunted as he came in his pants. For some time, he laid there on the floor, breathing like he was about to pass out. Then he stumbled up and leaned on the edge of the desk, facing Xander. "Uh... I... oh... shit... huh... I..." He stammered between breaths.

Xander put the sunglasses back on. "Dude, I don't know what's your problem, but I would like to pay, okay?" he said and turned to look at Emma, who came out from the toilet. "Honey, do you want something?"

Chuckling, Emma shook her head and looked at the clerk. Suddenly his eyes brightened as he turned to Xander. "How can I help you, Sir?" He asked.

Xander shrugged, thinking that Emma had done something to him. "I'd like to pay."

As the clerk was packing his purchases, he was looking at Xander, who again sensed his arousal. "What kind of freak are you?" He asked.

Xander sighed. "I'm an albino, you know, like Johnny Winter."

The clerk raised his brow. "The who?"

"No, Johnny Winter isn't in the Who, they're British group. Johnny Winter is a Texan blues guitarist," Xander said. "But I kinda like Behind blue eyes, which is the Who's song, not Winter's. Although, Winter is right about having to be careful with the fools... or was it stools? I mean, stools can be dangerous. Like, you might hurt yourself if you fall from a stool and break your tail bone. Trust me on this; sitting down when you have a broken coccyx ain't fun even if the word cock-yx is kinda hilarious."

The clerk stared at him. "Dude, you're weird."

"I've been called worse," Xander said enjoying playing the babbling village idiot.

"I'm sure you have," the clerk said, looking at the cash register. "the groceries and gas from the pump three?" he asked, and Xander nodded. "Fifty-six eighty."

Xander paid up and took the bag. "He'll be a little surprised when he goes to the toilet," he said when they had gotten out from the gas station.

"Indeed," Emma said. "You said that we should be laying low."

Xander shrugged. "Even if you hadn't erased his memories, do you really believe that he would have told anyone that he jerked off into his pants in front of a customer?"

"He was stupid enough to go and boast about his boldness." Emma chuckled. "Kind of a shame that he can't remember, he was fantasizing about you, and then you went and gave him a mind-blowing orgasm."

Xander's eyes widened. "Shit, I should have known that he wanted me when I smelled his arousal, and you were still in the bathroom."

Emma looked at him in her peculiar way, tightening her full lips, and smiling strangely. "In there, you used both empathy and telepathy, I almost came out before I was finished when I sensed a weak telepath nearby. Took me a moment to realize that it was you."

"If I'm telepathic too, then where the hell has that come from? It can't be the result of the Halloween spell like the vampirism and the empathy."

"I cannot be sure, but I think that you are a mutant… or you were before you were turned into a vampire, and it followed you even after being turned. In Jasper's memories, his pathokinetic power was a lot more limited than your empathy is," Emma replied. "You are Omega level mutant while Jasper would have been considered gamma level mutant."

"If I'd been a mutant before I was turned would actually explain why the collar worked on me," Xander said.

"That was one of the clues, but we cannot know if you were a mutant or not before you were turned into a vampire unless we test your DNA for the x-gene. Although, you are not a human anymore, so who knows what the DNA tests show." Emma paused. "I'd want to see what you just did, let me into your mind and go through that memory."

Xander sighed, opened his mind for her, and then he showed the memory of controlling the clerk's arousal to her.

"Again, but now let me see exactly what you did in slow motion."

He played the memory in slow motion.

"There," Emma said, "go ten seconds back."

Xander played the memory where he had connected with the clerk's mind, taking her with him to the landscape of emotions, which he saw as a ball of glowing, pulsating threads, most of them overlapping each other. "So, what's the verdict?" He asked.

"That is… I guess it is your mind's representation of human emotions and their connections. You don't see or hear thoughts as I do, but I think what you showed me was how his emotions are connected to each other. You saw them, but what I don't understand is the mirror image of those connections under it?"

"Uh, the lower ball is what I mess with. I cannot touch the upper ball, I just see it. It's like there is a glass wall that I cannot break to get to the higher ball," Xander replied "But, when I do things to the lower ball things happen on the top thread ball. I mess with the threads on the down, and the threads in the top ball are shivering, and sometimes the top ball is glowing."

Emma was silent for a moment. "I have a theory about that, but I have to test my theory," she said. "Maybe in a restaurant, I'm hungry."

"I bought some snacks."

"I want real food, I haven't eaten a warm meal in a day," Emma said. "And we can use patrons or waitresses as a guinea pig to test my theory."

Xander sighed, and as they drove through the next town, he parked the car in front of the Holiday Inn. "We might as well stay in here for the night."

They took a room, and while Emma carried her things to their room, Xander asked the receptionist if there were any good restaurants nearby. By the time Emma came back, he had gotten directions to a small restaurant that supposedly served good food.

"Would Italian food be good?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, I'm not that picky now that I'm starving," Emma replied, sliding her arm into his.

The restaurant was small, and it had that romantic atmosphere that some smaller restaurants had. Xander took it as a good sign that they had to wait for the table if the place was that popular it probably meant that the food was edible.

"See the young couple behind me?" Emma asked after she had made her order.

Xander looked at the young couple, sensing their mutual attraction, but he also sensed their mutual nervousness and awkwardness. "Yeah, what about them?"

"Go into the girl's mind and give a slight tug to her arousal," Emma said.

Xander entered the girl's mind and gave just a flick to her lust.

"Again, but a little harder and dampen her inhibition at the same time," Emma said.

He pushed the girl's arousal a little harder and pushed the emotion he instinctively knew was inhibition down. The girl leaned over the table, cupped the boy's face and kissed him. "Cool," Xander said.

"Now, repeat that to the boy."

Xander did as Emma asked, and a few seconds later, the boy kissed the girl. After that he didn't have to do anything, their nervousness was replaced by playful attraction. He snorted when the boy moved to beside the girl, and they started to make out. "Well, that was the first time I played Cupid."

Emma snorted. "They actually are a good match. They have similar hobbies, and they both dream about finding a person they can share their life and have kids with. You may have started a lifelong relationship."

"That's nice to know. Why did you want me to do that?"

"To see if from your point of view and how it affects the minds of your subjects. You are not a telepath per se, but you do see how complicated the human mind is. Those messy thread balls represent all the links between emotions and thoughts; emotions trigger thoughts and vice versa. I found the emotional landscape to be fascinating, it always is fun to see how the mind of a psychic represents what he sees. Much like myself, you are visualizing complex things inside the human mind to easily understandable pictures."

"Huh?" Xander said. "Doesn't that mean that if I learn what set of emotions trigger what kind of thoughts that I can control thoughts too?"

"Yes and no… it's easier to show than tell," Emma said, and suddenly Xander felt a rush inside of his mind as Emma tossed some knowledge about telepathy into his mind.

"Goddammit!" He cursed. "Your info dumps always make me dizzy, don't do it without warning!"

Emma smirked. "You should not have left the door ajar for me."

"Duly noted." Xander frowned. "Um… did you just put knowledge on how to perform cunnilingus the way you love it into my mind?"

Emma smirked. "That is useful knowledge."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Takes the fun out of learning it, though."

"Perhaps, but I'm hoping that you take it as a hint."

Xander laughed when he smirking Emma send a very graphic image into his mind. "Right, a very subtle hint, and, do you know why I let you into my mind?"

"Because you trust me."

"That too, but, enter into my mind right now," Xander said, and when Emma got into his mind, he entered hers and made her unconditionally loyal to him. Then he closed the link. "Now if I'd tell you to go and buy a gun and shoot everyone in this restaurant because it is what I want, what would you do?"

"I would go and..." Emma's eyes widened when she realized that she was ready to do what he wanted. For a few moments, her face contorted as if she'd been in pain and then her angry eyes fixed on his. "You messed with my emotions! You made me utterly loyal to you. I would have done anything for you!"

"Exactly, every time you enter my mind, you also open a way for me to get through your shields. Open up, so that I can see if you fixed yourself right."

Emma glared at him for a moment, and then she opened her mind for him. "Asshole!"

Xander examined her mind and put her emotions back the way they had been before he had messed with her loyalty. Then he flattened the rest of the visible ridges and unnecessary connections on her emotions that Emma's crude way of fixing it had caused.

"You did a pretty good job, but now I know why your emotions are full of sharp edges and ridges and broken lines. Because what you do to your own mind is not natural, the effect on your emotions is crude. Every time you use telepathy to fix your own mind, you also cause cracks into your emotions, that can't be healthy in the long run," Xander said. "You should stop altering your own mind, you are hurting yourself, not much, but all those tiny things might have a cumulative effect. Someday you might become unstable."

"What do you mean?"

"Your emotions were all over the place. You alter your own mind to make your personality to fit your ideal of yourself, and that is slowly making you emotionally unstable," Xander said. "While I was in there, I fixed most of the flaws in your... what the hell emotional side of the human mind is called."

"You fixed my emotional..." Emma groaned. "Can you put them back the way they were?"

"Yes, of course, I can, but not yet. Try it for a few days, see if you can feel any difference and if you still don't like what I did, then I restore them the way they were."

Emma sighed. "Annoyingly enough, that sounds good, and I damn well trust you too. Very well, I will stay like this for two days and, after that, if I'm not satisfied, I tell you to fix things the way they used to be. Primal."

"Excuse me?"

"The way I see it is that I work with the intellectual side of the human mind, and you work with the primal side of the mind." Emma wiggled her eyebrows. "Oh, how I wish you'd show your primal side to me."

Xander rolled his eyes. "You are relentless in your attempt to get me into your bed, aren't you?"

"When I want something or someone? Yes, I'm relentless, and I will not give up." Emma said.

When the food came, Emma began to eat hungrily. Xander liked to watch Emma eating, she made eating look very sensual, and as she was eating her ice cream he groaned, and she looked curiously at him. "What's wrong?"

"I loved everything sweet, and now I can't have that," Xander replied, staring as she put the piece of cake into her mouth. Emma was a slow eater; she rolled every bite inside of her mouth to get every flavor out from it before she swallowed and took another bite.

Emma looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she slowly twirled the ice cream inside of her mouth. Xander could see her tongue going from cheek to cheek. She swallowed and then she leaned over the table, put her hand behind Xander's neck and pulled his mouth to her soft and full lips.

Her tongue traced gently over the seam of his lips, and his mouth opened for her. She tasted of vanilla ice cream and strawberries and onions and chili and chicken and mint and tomatoes and cinnamon and coffee.

A soft moan escaped Xander's lips as she deepened the kiss. It had been so long since he had tasted anything else than blood and coffee that merely the aftertaste of the food in her mouth felt heavenly.

Emma pulled away and looked smilingly at Xander. "Was it as good for you as it was for me?"

"Yes," Xander grunted. "Probably even more so, enhanced senses, you know?" As he looked into her eyes, there was a mischievous gleam in them.

Xander sighed, it seemed that even though he had warned her about the consequences of trying to make him fall for her, she wasn't going to stop trying to seduce him. It was only a matter of time he'd end up having sex with her.

"Does that mean that your sense of touch is enhanced too?" Emma asked.

"Yes and no, it depends on how I'm touched. Punch me, and I barely notice, tickle me, and I giggle. My reaction to touch probably has something to do with my a subconscious, I feel the touch the way I subconsciously want it to feel."

"Good to know," Emma said, signaling the waitress to come. "Can I have..." She looked at Xander. "Alex, what would you like; chocolate or caramel sauce?"

"Chocolate," Xander replied, his mouth-watering when he imagined using her mouth as his proxy to taste something sweet. He turned to the waitress. "No, that is not enough, bring all the sauces you have."

"Yes, Sir." The baffled waitress said.

After the waitress had brought six small bottles on the table, Xander watched Emma pouring chocolate on a spoon and putting the spoon into her mouth. He waited until she leaned on him, and then he cupped her face, and forcefully kissed her. She met him with equal vigor. Xander's tongue licked insides of her mouth, desperately searching the flavors stored in there.

"Next," Xander breathed after he was satisfied.

Next half an hour Xander was using Emma's mouth to taste all kinds of sweet flavors, and her ever-increasing arousal enhanced his sensations. "I enjoyed that way too much," Xander said as we walked out from the restaurant.

Emma snickered. "Kissing me or the sweet taste of my mouth?"

"Both, actually," Xander admitted. "You won't give up until you have gotten me into your bed, will you?"

"I won't back off when I have set my goal."

"I've noticed," he said. "We don't have rubbers, though."

"Not a problem," Emma paused. "Can you even beget a child?"

"Yes, it's rare, but it happens," Xander replied as he opened the door of their motel room. He closed the door and pushed Emma against the wall, kissing her, forcefully pushing his tongue into her mouth.

"Ladybug," Emma said.

"Let's find a room," Xander said. "Don't blame me if you can't walk straight after this."

Hours later, Xander rolled off Emma and laid on his back beside her and pulled the shuddering Emma to his embrace and kissed her. "Was that what you wanted to happen?"

Emma kissed him. "Yes and no. I wanted to have sex with you, but that was… more intense than I imagined it to be."

"But you liked it?"

"Yeah, amazingly, I did."

Xander raised his brow. "Amazingly?"

"Usually, I want to be in control," Emma chuckled. "Though, for once, it was nice to be the bottom. You are a nice lay."

"I'm a nice lay?" Xander said with a cocked eyebrow. "That's nice to hear, it really strokes my ego to know that I'm a nice lay."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Men and their fragile egos. You're a great lay with amazing stamina, okay?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Emma said snuggling to him. "By the way, why do you think that Jasper Hale and Alicia are fictional?"

"Because they cannot be real. There are no other vampires like me."

"And how would you know that?"

Xander frowned. "I was going to say that Giles never mentioned the cold ones, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. There are less than a hundred of them, it would be quite easy for them to hide," he said and took the motel's phone and started to punch in numbers.

"To whom are you calling?"

"Cullens," Xander said as the phone on the other end started to ring.

"I've been expecting your call, little brother," Alice answered the phone.

* * *

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Xander stared at the phone. "Alice?" he said.

"Yes, little brother, it is me and yes, we are real, but deep down in you, you've known that all along, haven't you?"

"Yes," Xander admitted, in deep down he had always known that Jasper was real. "I think I kinda have felt… no, sensed that Jasper is out there. Like he's ghost riding on my back or something like that."

"Yes, you are his magically created twin and he too can sense you," Alice said.

Xander glanced at Emma. "Can I bring someone to meet the family?"

"No, you cannot come here. At least, not yet. Nothing good happens if you come. I'm sorry to say, but you would put us in even more danger than we already are," Alice said. "Did you know that there is a video on the internet where you kill a mutant with fire-powers and then you eat him?"

"No, I didn't know that," Xander said looking at Emma. "Did you know that there is a video of me killing a firestarter on the internet?"

"Yes, it is the video you got your nickname Bloodbite," Emma said.

"Shit," Xander said. "It must've been stolen from the Facility."

"Or, most likely, they released it to get you on the top of the FBI's and Interpol's most wanted list," Emma shrugged. "Or, that would be what I'd do if you'd escaped from me."

Xander nodded. "True," he said. "Alice?"

"I'm still here and I heard her," Alice said. "The point is that in the eyes of the most covens, including Volturi, you became a traitor after the video of you killing and eating a mutant was released on the Internet. Most of our kind are hunting you and we cannot afford to be affiliated with you, we have our own problems. I'm sorry but you cannot come here, not yet. We are all are sorry for that."

"I'm sorry too, I'd like to meet my family," Xander said.

"Do you want to talk to Jasper?"

"Of course," Xander said.

"Remember that he doesn't have any memories of you. Jasper senses you and he knows that you were turned by chaos magic and that you think him as your twin brother, but he doesn't have the memories you have," Alice said.

Xander sighed. "Yeah, I know."

The next fifteen minutes he spent talking with Jasper. After the initial awkwardness vanished, they got along well and Xander found himself telling his 'brother' stories about his life before chaos magic turned him into a cold one. He also found that, even if he didn't see himself that way, Jasper was quite good in the big brother role. After that Xander exchanged a few words with each member of the Olympic Coven before he hung up.

"That was… strangely liberating," Xander said.

"I bet it was," Emma said, "now, can you shut the fuck up? I need to get some sleep. You sort of spent me."

Xander chuckled. "Okay, babe, closing the pie-hole right now."

Hours later, Emma woke up feeling something cool against her deliciously aching body. Opening her eyes, momentarily, she was baffled to see black hairs only inch away from her eyes. Then she remembered that she was in the same bed with Xander, and she had wrapped her arm protectively around him. It felt good to wake up cuddled on a male body. She couldn't remember when was the last time that had happened. For a long time, she just laid there, enjoying how his cool body made her feel, then she kissed his neck.

"Morning," Xander said, turning on his back.

"Oh, you're awake," Emma said.

"I don't sleep."

"Right, I forgot that. Don't tell me you've laid there beside me all night long?"

"And most of the day too. You've slept eleven hours," Xander said.

Emma chuckled. "You wore me out," she sat up and looked at the man, he was at the same time hot as hell and adorable. The sight of him naked in the bed stirred her insides, she couldn't believe that she again was getting aroused. The night before, Xander had outlasted her.

Emma snickered, remembering his cute pout when she had practically forced him to stop so that she could get some sleep. She looked at his erect penis and shook her head when she again had an urge to jump on him and mold her body against his, and then make him come again and again and again, just to make him feel what he did to her.

Xander chuckled. "Feel free to make me come."

"Excuse me?" Emma asked.

"The link is still open."

"Shit," Emma growled when she realized that the mental link she'd formed with him while having sex was still open. She cut it off and looked at him. "How much did you see?"

"Your wet dreams are strange and very abstract. And you have a strange obsession with Romeo and Juliet, and what's with the horse in that play?"

Emma groaned. "Like all girls, I loved horses when I was young. What else did you see?"

"As I said, I was entertained by your wet dreams."

"Just remember that they are just dreams, don't take them seriously," Emma said and gave his gorgeous body one last glance before she went to the bathroom. When she sat on the toilet seat, she began to think about how he made her feel. And by the time she got to the shower, Emma was annoyed. Emma leaned on the wall, letting the hot water wash over her body, thinking that she didn't need him, she didn't need anyone, much less a man.

She had her business, she was the White Queen, she had her own life. As soon as the mess with The Facility was over, she'd forget him. He'd just fade from her memory. In a month, she would barely remember his face, and year from now, she wouldn't recognize him on the street.

But, when she got out of the bathroom and saw Xander, Emma felt a terrible urge to cuddle with him and stay like that for the rest of the day.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Emma groaned. "You've meddled with my emotions, haven't you?"

"No I have not, I won't cheat on this, that'd be wrong," Xander said opening his mind to her. "you can look if you want to, I didn't use my powers on you. To quote you: all your emotions are natural."

Emma entered his mind, and when she didn't find any clue that he'd done something to her emotions, she got even more annoyed. She noticed that Xander didn't love her, but he wasn't that far off loving her either. Emma knew that that had been the reason why he had wanted her to go through his mind. Xander wanted to show her that he'd do anything to protect her. Emma smirked and went through his mind again and groaned when she realized that, regardless of his feelings toward her, he would not become her puppet. "I don't need you, I don't have any feelings toward you."

"We both know that that is a lie. But, if you hate the idea so much, you can always reset your mind and make all those disturbingly warm and fuzzy feelings go away. But, if you do that, you're not worthy of the title White Queen, because you're only a frightened little girl who is too afraid to get hurt to let anyone into her life." Xander snorted. "The big bad White Queen is afraid to have friends because she fears that letting people in will give them a chance to hurt her."

"Fuck you! That kind of idiotic reverse psychology won't work with me."

"Take it from a man who has lived 156 years; you cannot run away from your past or your feelings. Sooner or later they will come back to bite your ass."

"You're not really 156 years old!"

Xander rolled his eyes. "Not the point, and you know it."

"I've done fine on my own."

"You've done better than well. You're exceeded all the expectations anyone ever could have placed on you," Xander said, "you are a successful businesswoman and the White Queen of the Hellfire Club."

"Expectations..." Emma muttered, suddenly her mind was flooded with the memories of her childhood and youth. Images of her father and his expectations to his children. Emma hated her father from the bottom of her heart, and she would have been glad to rub it into his face how successful she'd become without his help. She groaned and looked at Xander. "Yes, I'm Emma Frost, I don't need you. In fact, I don't know why I'm following you, I could have dealt with the Facility goons on my own."

"Yeah, you have no reason to be with me. Never have had. But the moment you entered my mind and started to merge my multiple personalities to one, you were hooked. Last night I realized that, knowingly or not, you have created a man you need in your life. Emphasis on the word need, you might not want me in your life, but you need me." Xander said, taking a blood bag from the fridge. When he stood up, he had a cocky smirk plastered on his face. "why else would I be this adamant not to let you leave without a fight? Why am I ready to stay beside you and take all the shit you'll throw at me until you are willing to admit that you need someone you can trust in your life, and we both know that I can be that man?"

"Because you are a man. They always think too highly of themselves."

Xander calmly took a sip from his blood, leaning his shoulder on the wall, which made his toned, naked body look even sexier. "Perhaps, but you need me, don't you?"

"No, I don't," Emma huffed, looking into his red eyes, and she groaned when she saw the mischievous gleam on them, and suddenly she realized what he was doing. "You're deliberately trying to anger me, aren't you?"

"Yeah, because I know that you cannot leave a fight if you haven't won. You won't leave me until you're sure that you have won the battle and the war. You won't leave me until you're sure that you have crushed me."

"True," Emma reluctantly admitted. "I'm not known to back away from a battle."

"But this battle you will lose. I know for a fact that I will win the battle and the war."

Emma snorted. "Every man thinks that he can win his woman in a fight."

Xander raised his eyebrow. "You do know that you kinda just admitted that you're my woman?"

"Fuck you, that wasn't what I meant, and you know it."

"Actually, I think that that was just what you meant, and that's what scares you," Xander said, smiling warmly at her. "I'm pretty sure that I won't ever lose our fights if I let my instincts guide me. If I let my instincts take over my actions, I will be reacting just the way you need me to respond to your shit because I have literally been made for you by you."

"Made for me, by me," Emma growled. She had to admit that Xander had a point. When molding his mind, she might have given him the upper hand when arguing with her. That thought annoyed her. Emma NEEDED to show him that he was wrong, which probably was just what he wanted her to feel.

"Goddammit!" Emma cursed and began to pack her things. "next night we'll spend in a hotel that meets MY standards."

Xander gave her a cocky half-smile. "Yes, dear."

"And you'll have sex with me until I'm too tired to think that I have created my own personal monster!"

"Yes, dear, I serve at the pleasure of my Queen."

"You bet you will serve me! You're mine, and I won't let you go or rule me!" Emma groaned, realizing what she'd just said. "I can leave you."

"Yes, dear, I know, but you won't leave me, not yet. I'm too good in bed to be left behind before you get bored me."

"That's true, but someday I WILL dump you," Emma grunted. "We have to leave, but don't think that this battle is over."

"No, dear, I'm not that stupid. I know that it'll take me a long time and a lot of work to make you trust me enough to let me in. But, I won't give up, I'll be there for you as long as you need me. I have all the time in the world, and you, and you alone, are my priority now."

Emma brushed off the warm feeling his statement caused in her. "Stop doing that, stop angering me, stop pushing my buttons… just stop, goddammit!"

"Yes, dear, I'll stop… for now," Xander said, and Emma stiffened when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "I won't lose, you know? I will win this battle of wills, or, maybe this is a battle of hearts?"

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Emma groaned.

Xander grinned. "Last night, I decided that you need a shepherd for your heart, and I'm the best man for the job," he said.

"Shepherd of heart? What the hell does that mean?"

Without replying, he went into the bathroom. As Emma watched him going into the bathroom, she was aching to touch him, and she almost hollered him to come back. But she only grunted in annoyance and continued packing their things. When she was finished packing, just to let some of the steam, she attacked his mind.

His psi-block held under her attack, but she could feel it shaking. She used more power to get through, and suddenly her own mind was under attack. For a few moments, they fought without either getting the upper hand. Then she withdrew from his mind putting all her efforts on her shield, and the mental battle was over, but it left her even tenser than before.

Emma had always relied on her mind, telepathy, and logic, and now it seemed that the battle was emotional and that was Xander's home field. She wasn't sure what to do to win the war.

When Xander came out of the bathroom, without a word he pushed her on the bed and came on top of her. As he kissed her with fervor, she kissed back, devouring his mouth. Only when he began to kiss his way down her body did Emma realize that she still was naked.

Desire flushed over her when he took her nipple into his mouth. She spread her legs when his hand moved down there. "Fuck me," she moaned.

"That's the plan," Xander said.

Half an hour later, when her third orgasm subsided, Xander kissed her. "Now you're relaxed," he smilingly said.

"Fuck you," Emma muttered, "now I need to shower again."

Xander smirked, lifted her on the fireman carry, and before she knew what was happening, she was in the bathroom, facing the water stream. "Test that the water isn't too hot."

Emma felt slightly embarrassed being naked on his shoulders, but she put her arm on the water stream. "No, it's fine."

He gently put her down in the shower stall. "Hands up to your neck," He said, and when baffled Emma raised her hands to her neck, he soaped his hands and started to caress her body. He gently and determinedly washed her all over, and Emma found herself enjoying being washed. After he had washed and toweled her, he kissed her. "I told you; I serve for your pleasure," Xander said, leading her out of the bathroom.

"Oh, really?" Emma asked, looking at him.

"Yes."

Emma smirked. "In that case… how much money do we have left?"

"$8732."

Emma frowned. "Almost nine thousand? How much did you withdraw anyway?" She paused. "Never mind, that's nothing. My point is; if you're to serve me… my servants need to be dressed to please me, and I need new clothes too. We need to go clothes shopping."

Xander laughed. "I will never understand women's obsession with clothes."

"As much as people like to think that it is the inner beauty that matters, the truth is that people judge you by your appearance. In the first few seconds, after they've met you, they make their verdict if you're worthy of their time or not. Clothes are a big part of giving good first expression, almost, but not quite, as significant as the way you handle yourself. If you are well-dressed and self-assured, people tend to think that you are an important person, thus; you are worthy of their time."

Xander smiled. "Finally, I got an explanation that makes sense," he said. "yeah, by all means, use me as your dress-up doll."

"Oh, I will, trust me on that."

A couple of hours later, Emma was guiding him through a Mall. She would have preferred to go shopping in more exclusive stores, but beggars cannot be choosers. During the first half, an hour, she started to think that he was right, perhaps she had molded him to be her dream man.

He didn't complain regardless of what she wanted him to wear, and he seemed to be contentedly showing her how the clothes looked on him. Emma bought him a few casual outfits and a Hugo Boss suit, and when she saw how good he looked in a suit, she decided to take him to a proper tailor to get him a good suit. When she was shopping for herself, Xander patiently acted as her pack animal.

"How does this look on me?" Emma said as she came out from the fitting booth dressed in a white cheap leather corset that barely covered her breasts, skin-tight white leather leggings, and five-inch heels.

"Slutty," Xander replied. "However, somehow, you make it look classy. I guess that a classy bitch can make anything look chic."

Emma snorted. "I'd punish anyone else for calling me a bitch."

"Oh, but you are a bitch, and you're proud of it."

"You're right on that, but it doesn't mean that I let people call me a bitch."

Xander smirked, got into a kneeling position in front of her, lowering his gaze on her feet. "My Queen, I beg for your forgiveness," he said. "Your grace is unrivaled. Your Highness can make any outfit look to be fit for a Queen."

Emma laughed, feeling slightly annoyed by the ease he made her laugh. "You are forgiven," she said and glanced at the amused shop assistant. Suddenly Emma got a vivid image from the shop clerk's mind; the girl imagined being fucked by Xander in the fitting booth. Emma growled, not liking the woman fantasizing about her man. She wasn't sure how she felt about her own sudden possessiveness. To test how possessive she was, she imagined letting the woman have sex with him, and the mere idea angered her.

Emma groaned, closed her eyes, and made herself calm down.

She had lied, betrayed, and she had crushed people and enjoyed while doing that. She had done many terrible things, but since her teens, she had never lied to herself, and she wasn't going to start now.

Emma looked at the beautiful man admitting to herself that, for a long time, she had been terribly lonely. Xander probably was right. When molding him, she'd unconsciously created a man who might make her less lonely. A man whom she might learn to trust enough to let him see the woman behind the mask. The problem was; she'd had the mask for so long that Emma wasn't sure who she was. She feared that she would not like the woman behind the mask, and, more than that, she feared that he would not like the woman behind her mask.

And that scared her.

She'd have to get rid of Xander before he'd make her weak.

Before he'd betray her.

_[Today,]_ she thought,_ [I'll leave him today.]_

Emma looked at the smiling man, and suddenly she was fantasizing him, making her come like no man ever before. Like he had done the night before and again in the morning. _[Tomorrow I'll leave him, tonight I'll let him fuck me to oblivion.]_

Xander got up, pulled her into his embrace, and kissed her with a passion. As Emma kissed him back, she felt safe. After the kiss, she rested her head on his shoulder. _[Someday soon I'll leave him,]_ she promised to herself.

_[__Weren't you supposed not to lie to yourself? You won't leave him anytime soon.] _"Oh, shut up," Emma growled.

"What?" Xander asked.

"Never mind," Emma said, sliding her arm into his. "I'm hungry, let's find a place to eat... if you're a good boy I'll let you taste desserts."

* * *

**TBC**


End file.
